Seven of Britain's ten best-selling cars leave under 15 cm a side through the average garage door, VeltHaven analysis finds

London, 19 October 2026, Britain's most popular cars have grown faster than the doors they are meant to pass through, according to a new analysis published by VeltHaven, a UK designer and installer of steel and insulated garages.

The company took the ten best-selling cars of 2025, as published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and compared each maker's published width with the 2.1-metre average garage door reported by the RAC Foundation. Of the nine cars whose makers publish a width excluding mirrors, every one leaves less than 16 cm of clearance on each side, and seven leave less than 15 cm:

• MG HS: 1,890 mm wide, 10.5 cm each side
• Volvo XC40: 1,873 mm, 11.4 cm
• Kia Sportage: 1,865 mm, 11.8 cm
• Hyundai Tucson: 1,865 mm, 11.8 cm
• Volkswagen Tiguan: 1,859 mm, 12.1 cm
• Nissan Qashqai: 1,835 mm, 13.3 cm
• Ford Puma: 1,805 mm, 14.8 cm
• Nissan Juke: 1,800 mm, 15.0 cm
• Volkswagen Golf: 1,789 mm, 15.6 cm

The tenth, the Vauxhall Corsa, could not be compared: Vauxhall publishes its width only with mirrors (1,960 mm). Ford and Kia do not say whether their figure includes mirrors. The full table, with each manufacturer's wording and source, is at https://velthaven.co.uk/will-my-car-fit-in-a-garage/

The trend is not new. The RAC Foundation reported in 2021 that the best-selling cars of 1965 averaged 1.5 metres wide and those of 2020 averaged 1.8 metres, a footprint increase of almost a third. The RAC's own poll of 2,138 drivers the same year found that 53% of motorists with a garage never park in it, and 30% of those said the car was too big to get through the door. Transport & Environment found in 2024 that new cars in Europe are getting about a centimetre wider every two years.

"The number on the brochure is the door, not the gap your car goes through. Measure your car with the mirrors folded against the clear opening, and leave yourself room to open a door once you're inside," said Miroslaw Chrzaniecki, co-founder of VeltHaven.

The clear opening is the usable width and height a vehicle actually passes through, and it is smaller than the nominal door size. VeltHaven publishes the clear opening for every garage it sells: from 2.5 metres per door on its double and triple-door layouts to 5.0 metres on its widest single-door garages, with clear heights of 2.0, 2.2 and 3.0 metres depending on the height build. Details are at https://velthaven.co.uk/garage-doors/

Three checks before buying a garage:

1. Measure the car, not the brochure: width with mirrors folded, height including roof bars or a box.
2. Compare it with the clear opening, in writing from the supplier, not with the door size.
3. Allow for getting out: a car that passes through the door still needs room inside for its doors to open.

The figures are indicative; widths vary by trim, year and mirror type, and the company advises every buyer to measure their own vehicle.

Notes to editors

About the analysis

The ten cars are the UK's best-sellers of 2025, from the SMMT's full-year figures published on 6 January 2026. Widths and heights were read from each manufacturer's own UK specification page or brochure in October 2026 and are quoted with the maker's own mirror wording. Clearance each side = (2,100 mm minus the car's width) divided by two. Per-car sources are listed on the VeltHaven page.

Sources

SMMT, UK new car market 2025: https://www.smmt.co.uk/uk-new-car-market-breaches-two-million-as-almost-one-in-four-buyers-go-electric/ RAC Foundation research, reported by RAC Drive on 12 July 2021: "Modern cars so big garages now 'unfit for purpose'" RAC Home Insurance poll of 2,138 drivers, 28 June 2021 Transport & Environment, "Cars are getting 1 cm wider every two years", 22 January 2024

Image

velthaven-car-clearance-diagram-1200x628.png, a diagram by VeltHaven Ltd. We hold the rights. Caption: Clearance each side for the MG HS, the widest of Britain's 2025 best-sellers, through the 2.1 m average garage door and a 2.5 m VeltHaven clear opening. Diagram, not to scale.

About VeltHaven

VeltHaven Ltd designs and installs steel garages, insulated garages and garden rooms, project-managed and installed across mainland UK by vetted, certified UK teams. Founder-led. Companies House 17261887. Previous coverage: CB Herald, 3 September 2026, on the company's published fire-resistance ratings.