Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IF YOU’VE FOUND parking your car is getting harder, you’re not imagining it. New cars in Ireland grew 2.4cm wider in five years, with some of the most popular models now so large they have just a few centimetres to spare in many parking spaces.
Campaigners say legislation is urgently needed to halt the trend for ever wider cars, which is making roads and footpaths unsafe and hostile for cyclists and pedestrians.
Irish drivers seem to be particularly fond of bigger vehicles, with new cars here spanning 181.1cm on average in 2020, exceeding the EU average of 180.2cm.
That’s according to data from the International Council on Clean Transportation research organisation and the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), which sees 180cm as a key threshold as it is the minimum on-street parking space size in many European countries.
Ireland breached the 180cm threshold for new cars as long ago as 2017.
Some of the most popular car models now are significantly wider again, including the Volkswagen ID.4 at 185.5cm wide (excluding door mirrors) and the Nissan Qashqai at 183.9cm, both among the top 10 bestsellers last year.
Medium SUVs such as these dominate the new car market in Ireland, accounting for almost a third of sales, data from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry shows.
Although large SUVs account for only 4.87% of the market, this segment’s share is growing steadily year on year, having stood at just 3.21% in 2018.
Several SUVs are over 2 metres in width, including the BMW X5 and X6 and the most popular Land Rover model, the Range Rover Sport. Electric cars are also part of the trend, with Kia’s recently launched new fully electric model, the EV9, just under 2 metres wide.
Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan said the increase in sales of large SUVs was “incredibly worrying”.
Hourigan said the trend towards ever bigger cars was dangerous for pedestrians because the vehicles were more difficult to manoeuvre and had more restricted sightlines. They can also cause worse injuries in the event of a collision with a pedestrian.
Cars are being sold to be bigger and bolder to protect the person in the car, but that is more dangerous for the person on the street.
“In Europe, we care about pedestrians. Elon Musk’s Cybertruck must not be sold here,” Hourigan said, adding that Ireland must work with the EU on this issue.
T&E claims that EU legislation as it currently stands will not prevent SUVs expanding as far as 255cm – the current legal cap on widths for buses and trucks – within a few years. This in turn would push the average new car width to around 2 metres, corresponding to the width of the largest SUVs available today.
In Ireland, many on-street car-parking spaces are less than 2 metres wide, meaning larger cars have just a few centimetres to spare and, unless parked right against the kerb, can often bulge out into the street.
James Nix, a campaigner at T&E, said: “The increase in car width is non-stop.
Ever-wider SUVs are crowding out other road users.
“Cycling is at risk if this trend is let continue because a further erosion of passing distance has stark safety implications on a rising number of roads and streets.”
T&E has called for a review of the maximum width limit on cars, crossovers, SUVs, pick-ups and vans to “protect public space from further encroachment” – including footpaths, roadway and adjoining parking spaces.
It has warned that ever-wider SUVs pose a safety risk as increased width enables the height of vehicles to be further raised.
“Vehicle fronts raised by 10cm carry a 30% higher risk of fatalities in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists,” T&E said.
Hourigan noted that SUVs were being driven not only as work vehicles in rural locations but rather on “urban streets”, often with only the driver on board.
Maybe car spaces should be bigger and not made to the bare minimum so that fee charging carparks can maximize their revenue. Many squeeze as many spaces in as possible at the expense of dents to people’s cars from those who couldn’t care less about other peoples property
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: well said. Try parking in the underground car park at swords pavilion. Designed for minis and smart cars. Have to nearly get out of the window.
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: …or maybe cars & SUV’s should just stop getting fatter, huh?
@anthony murphy: Swords pavilions is huge compared to others. Try parking in the Q park at Christ Church.
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: opposite Christ Church, even a micra would have difficulty
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: they are matching the apartments that they are built for!!
@Paul Somers: yeah I went in there once with my humvee – sooo embarrassed
@Steve Chalk: try getting out of your parking space in Christchurch when an SuV parks right beside my car leaving me with no option but to climb thru the window!
Driving in a normal sized car on a country road against one of these new suvs with their lazer headlights is an absolute death trap. I’ve often had to stop as they are on the wrong side of the road and I can’t see where the edge of the road is because I am dazzled. These headlights need to be toned down. People are going to be hurt as they can’t see. Nuisance when they are behind you also
@Furious George – The Wasp: agreed, reminds me of the canyanaro from the simpsons
@Furious George – The Wasp: big time! It’s crazy that the nct doesn’t have a fault for lights that are too bright!
@Dave Desmond: noticed the Teslas also have brighter lights than other cars, dazzling you in the process even on a flat stretch of urban road
@Furious George – The Wasp: Is it that the lights are too bright (too powerful), or simple too high, and shining directly into your eyes?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: both I would say. They are directly in your eyeline and very bright.they are focused at the level of where your eyes are looking while watching the road.
@Paddy Ryan: great episode
@Jerry LeFrog: be a common culprit of these blinding lights. I feel like putting on my high beams in response. See how they feel being blinded. I am a safe driver though so don’t do this
@Furious George – The Wasp: The thing is that the other driver is not deliberately trying to blind you. They are required to have their lights on, and have on the only lights provided to them.
Even a low power light shining into you face, at nighttime when your eyes have adjusted to the dark, can be blinding.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: that’s true but the problem is these headlights are not normal. They are far too bright which is causing a hazard on the roads. Sunglasses be the Sony solution but then you would see nothing. Great to see others agree the lights are too bright.
Have a fine day folks. I’m off for some ice cream
Of the most recent 15 articles here on The Journal, only 3 are open for comment !
@Ian McDonald: so! They’re not required to have comments open, their site, their rules
@Ian McDonald: Time well spent, Ian.
Mrs Mc Carthy regularly comments that the spaces in the newly renovated local lidls are very small/ narrow ( 2016 Nissan quashqai) ….. I keep saying ‘nah’ surely they’ll have the same amount of spaces as before work– but I was in there today….jeez it is very narrow, right in between the lines & its practically impossible to open the door more than 60% of the way without touching next car….now this articlevis about cars getting bigger/ wider but I really think the ‘spaces’ in carparks are getting skinnier too.
[posting from the US] Most car designers probably design cars with a thought to what might sell in the US market. Cars in the US have become behemoths. Some of this is owing to the rampant machismo of the MAGA population and some of this is because Americans continue to expand in size.
Dear god almighty,what will we be complaining about next
@Itsme83: who’s complaining??? Used to be an old lad in the local pub ( dead now ) that used to scream out ( randomly)…
” you can’t have a pint of Guinness in a half pint glass”. This article is just acknowledging he was right all along. Don’t let it frazzle you
So is it “new cars in Ireland” or just “new cars” – did realise that we got special cars that are wider than every other market? We’re so special. Christ on a bike (with no road space apparently)
@Niall Whyte: in that there are proportionately more SUVs sold in Ireland than in other European countries. So the “average” width of a car in Ireland is more than elsewhere.
That’s insane. Why so many SUVs in town? And 95% of them will never ever see a dirt road or pull a heavy load. What’s wrong with a saloon or estate for normal road driving?
@Jerry LeFrog: Don’t fit kid seats…. that all needs looking at. They should design slimline kids seat, using better. materials than plastic which ends up being super bulky. You can’t fit 3 kids seat in a 5 series BMW for example, if there was an accident the largest child or the child in the middle is likely to be gravely injured….. the seats next to the wheel arches splay the seat inwards…
@Jerry LeFrog: I was driving around Waterford city last night in a Ford Focus and I could have done with an SUV. The roads in this country are appalling so I’m not surprised people opt for something a bit more comfortable
No mention of the yummy mummy fav the massive Volvo XC90, they’re everywhere. I found a 2 year old XC90 for €70,000 not bad?!
@SOCOMJON: Probably the safest car in the world for passengers, pedestrians and other road users….. that car avoids accidents for you….. it’s mega. No fatalities in the 1st generation. Light on fuel as its hybrid. And for sure takes multiple cars off the road…. ours is full of our own kids, and others going to football, parties, school…. and they go on, and on, forever…. the last one we had did about a billion miles…..
@RC247: It’s important to protect yourself when your a m0r0nic driver that really should never have passed a test, as most of them are.
It’s to accommodate the most obese kids in the most car addicted country in Europe.
@Gerben: why would Greek children be in Liechtenstein?
If even one part of your rant was based on facts… We can but dream
@Colm O’ Shea: Aaaah , I’m not allowed to post links here but the HSE can tell you.
@Colm O’ Shea: one of the most car addicted countries, with some of the most obese kids?
@Gerben: They should limit the size of child car seats also, one of the reasons why there’s an appetite for bigger cars….. child seats do not fit
@brian o’leary: We could go back to horses and donkeys, I suppose…
Never mind car parking spaces, some of the roads now are so narrow they barely cater for the normal car width thanks to the installation of the bike lines!
@Lydia Mcloughlin: Ah!
I was wondering what this article was about.
Methinks you have hit the bullseye.
The Greens, and their ilk, have now realised that their narrowing of the existing road network is resulting in problems, and safety issues.
And are, naturally, assigning the blame to the motorist.
@Jimmy Wallace: Where in my comment did you pick that up from?
It is reported that Irish cars are 0.9cm – that is 9mm, or less than 3/8″ in old money, wider than the European average. That cannot be regarded as a safety hazard; not in comparison to our road widths, which have been reduced significantly by the Greens and their ilk.
If – as this article and some comments suggest – the increased width is a safety hazard, then the reduction in road width must be regarded as a significantly greater safety hazard.
It has always been the trend that manufacturers bring out new car models that are smaller, and these gradually put on middle-age spread as they age.
There is nothing new in that.
Hgoing forward, here’s a good revenue source, tax the size of the car as well as, or instead of, the weight.
@AnthonyK: We do tax the size of cars, albeit indirectly.
Larger cars require larger engines, uses more fuel per distance travelled.
They therefore have higher emissions, and are taxed at higher rates.
The also cost more in fuel, adding to the VAT and excise duty paid to the state.
@Ian McDonald: If you don’t realise that comments under articles are closed due to the uneducated, offensive, divisive, antagonistic and foolish posts then I can oy assume that you are part of the problem.
@Sun Rise: Why is the article on ESB power line upgrades closed to comments, and this one open?
There is no sense to that.
Is this aprils fools – have I really just read an article to discover that in all of the many many pressing issues facing Ireland – every public service stretched to the usual crisis point – I won’t bother mention costs of living , huge taxation , poor infrastructure – particularly acute crisis coming in future exchequer revenue from motor sector which takes in 5 billion a year but will rapidly decline as we force a shift to EV and haven’t figured how to replace income on oetrol and diesel , lousy charger , second hand ev will
Collapse – and Nessa the green td is “ incredibly worried” that Irish people are buying suv cars that other countries design and build but there’s actually a campaigner group that have nothing else to do but waste everyone’s time talking about the width of the car.
@Jimmy Wallace: it’s not so much that we “make” bigger and wider cars, it’s more that the Irish motorists “buy” those cars, for no reason other than “I feel safer in that big brute of an oversized SUV to carry little Johnny to school down the road”, in a urban setting
@Jimmy Wallace: Jim Ireland doesn’t make or design cars and we have no influence whatsoever over their width -there are literally a million things we need to be concerned about just in transport in Ireland alone that we need to expend time effort and energy on / having talking shops and wasting valuable time on issues we have NO WAY OF CONTROLLING – which is the case of the width of cars is beyond ridiculous – Eurocrats will waste time talking on any of this nonsense but the people need to see the country being managed by our elected officials on matters that actually impacts our everyday lives – not a whingefest about distractions that Ireland cannot change. Actually disgraceful distraction from real issues imo.
What about the houses
@Shamey Lyons: I think they’re getting smaller….
Also, far away.
I’ll drive a big car and continue to do so as I have 3 kids small kids in car seats to fit in, buggies, a big dog and groceries usually. I pay my higher road tax and diesel as a consequence. I can drive and park in it no problem. So no I’ll leave off the small car thanks
The problem with bigger cars is most of the people buying them can’t drive them, When you see someone in an SUV stopping before a gap they just watched a bus drive through you know you are behind a plank.
That’s not the size that is the problem… That’s the price of them !
@Dominic Leleu: nope it’s the size mate.
Why is the article on the ESB transmission line upgrade closed to comment?
I have a question:
Are these upgrades replacing existing overhead lines?
Or existing underground lines?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I have the answers to your questions but then again, I read the article.
What’s problem with “big cars” ? I thought it was big fossil fuel burning engines we had a problem with ?
@Jason Keane: it’s just a distraction – in Ireland the green having being banging on to switch to Electric cars – they cost 50 grand and instead of putting fossil fuels directly into the car – we use fossil fuel in Ireland to generate electricity and then put it into the car – and at what cost to you and me ? They have made a mess of traffic management , have huge holes in their plans overbuilt cycles lanes , don’t know how to replace the 5 billion normal cars tax’s which is a huge issue , don’t know how the second hand market can work for battery ev cars because they deplete and no one will want them in 5 years – the list goes on – so distract – talk about the width of cars – simple – something to discuss that we can’t ever change as we don’t design or manufacture cars in Ireland -BS
@Dave Hammond: Spot on Dave!
@Dave Hammond: It’s a real mess in fairness, so inept.
The cars are getting longer by 5 mm per annum and the sea level is rising by 2 – 3 mm per annum.
That must be totally unrelated.
irishexaminer.com/sponsored/arid-41150191.html
Vast majority of the houses in my estate have two cars often two SUVs as if there is rough terrain to be traversed in county Dublin
Prefer a smaller faster car myself. Still costs me more regardless. There is almost no point here when the considerations have been realised, these articles are just bait.
A fluff piece for the Green Party
have your say