My wife and I just bought a 2008 TCH. Before this neither of us had spent more than 5 grand on a car, so it was somewhat of a big deal. I cleared out room in our tiny garage for it, but there's just not enough room. It's a tiny garage, and you can't open both doors easily. So, it's going to live outside in the Oregon rain. Other than avoiding frost in the morning, is there any reason to keep a car in a garage? Maybe keep the paint from fading too?

 

A million bad things can happen (twigs, tree limbs, rain, acid rain, purple rain, bugs, bird poop, pollen, hail, snow, ice, a neighbors baseball or football, wind blown debris, etc.) that could that could damage it. Add to that the effect of the 'attractive nuisance' posed to it by an intoxicated passerby or even an animal.
The sun will cause the car to prematurely age, especially if you have leather seats.
Extreme weather can harm the battery, and garages might mitigate some of the extremes.
Stealing a car is a bit more difficult if it's in a locked garage.
If the car is dirtier more often or more quickly (as a result of being outside), you will need to clean it more often, which costs money, pollutes (soap suds) or burns carbon as you drive to the car wash (boo! hiss!).
The only advantage to not using a garage is it will save you the 10 seconds it takes to open it.
I put it in the garage all the time.





you're new here...I'm almost always sarcastic (and them I'm 'tongue-in-cheek' the rest of the time)

 

Well, it's at least good to know all the terrible things I'm subjecting my car to.

 

In Oregon it might not be as bad, but here in Detroit we can have some pretty cold nights (-20 anyone?). The garage is a pretty good buffer to that and puts less stress on all the parts that are supposed to be flexible and/or lubricated.

As for the car's paint, my older brother was an engineer for DuPont in their automotive paint division. His advice was to wash and garage your car. He has a '94 Explorer that looks better than most five year old cars, so I trust him.

 

I have always garaged my vehicles whenever possible. It keeps the car safe from curbside vandelisim and keeps it looking new much longer. A small example of something lasting longer is my windshield wipers last three years or more. I guess the fact that it hardly rains here could be part of the reason, but then the car stays much cleaner than it would be parked out in the weather.

If you can swing it I would really recommend doing it. Once you get used to doing it you won't go back voluntarily.

 

Plus it forces you to keep the garage clean and organized

 

You got that right - plus I got real good at finding space and building shelves to store all the useless stuff that will never be used again but we still want to keep.

 

You might consider a metal carport. The only problem might be storms with high winds. The sides of the car would not be protected but it would not be in the sun that much. Your in a rainy state and a carport would help keep the rain off.

I live in the southern New Mexico desert. My wife insisted on buying a metal double carport for the TCH and her Ford Ranger pickup. Both vehicles stay clean except for an occasional dust devil or any dust storms. It don't take long to hand wash it using some car wash liquid soap from walmart.

My advise is to hand wax the car using a quality paste wax that has no cleaners in it. One that includes ultraviolet protection. I did this when we lived in North Texas in an apartment. The car sat out in the hot sun including the many strong storms that came though. The paint held up really well on the '94 white Corolla I had back then.

 

Well, maybe I'll give garaging another shot. As I see it it's a bit of a tradeoff between the things you guys have mentioned and the real possibility of my wife or I taking out a mirror, as there's only about 6-inches clearance on each side of the garage door.

 

Hang a tennis ball from the ceiling that will line up when you bring the car in perfectly as a guide. This way if you are too far to one side of or the other you will hit the ***** and then stop before you damage the car