Revealed: The cars so long you could get a parking ticket

No, it’s not just you: cars are getting bigger. 

So much so that the Institute of Structural Engineers (IStructE) has updated its guidance on parking space dimensions, increasing the minimum length from 4.8 metres to 5 metres. In addition, the width of a parking space should be correspondingly increased from 2.4 to 2.6 metres. 

Even with this new guidance for plus-sized cars, there are still a surprising number of cars – not commercial vehicles – that overshoot this guidance. In fact, even post-rebrand Jaguar's (in)famous 'Type .00' concept car (below) is 5.1 metres long. 

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The cars over 5 metres long

The table below shows all cars we've tested that are available to buy new and over 5 metres long.

The longest car we’ve tested: BMW i7

BMW’s luxury electric i7 is a colossal 5.39m long, making it the longest new car we’ve tested by a fair margin. It starts from a little over £94k.

There’s no escaping the fact that you’re going to struggle to find an on-street parking space long enough to manoeuvre into (unless your embassy of choice has reserved parking for you) and you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb in any bay parking space, too. 

At 2.2 metres wide including wing mirrors, it’s also only going to leave 20cm each side for you to actually get out if you’ve parked in a modern car park, and just 10cm in those that conform to the previous IStructE guidance.

We noted in our review, though, that this car does at least have various parking aids installed, including panoramic cameras, to give you a 360-degree view of your surroundings, and a parking assistant that will let you know which spaces you’ll fit into. A reversing assistant will also automatically guide your car into a space. 

Size matters: we publish the length of each car in our new and used car reviews

The brands with the most over-length cars

It’s perhaps not surprising that premium, prestige brands have the most cars that overshoot parking spaces. Of the 14 cars above, BMW, Mercedes and Audi make up 11 of them, with Land Rover, Kia and Genesis all providing one example each.

The longest Mercedes is the electric EQS (above), which fits into a similar category to the BMW i7 and is 5.22 metres long. The longest Audi is the A8 at 5.17 metres. 

Elsewhere, the newly launched Kia EV9 SUV (below) just scrapes into the 5-metre category by 15 millimetres and the luxury Genesis G80 Electrified does so by just 5mm. 

The average starting price of these super-sized cars is over £79,000, and it’s the 2022 Range Rover that has the highest starting price of over £102,000, although many of the cars in this list can be specced up to over £150,000, and a few well beyond that.

Big car, big fine?

It’s not just an annoyance to other car park users. Driving these cars into certain car parks could actually land you with a fine for not staying within the marked bays; several councils now have explicit policies prohibiting vehicles more than five metres long parking in their car parks. Parking fines on council and private land vary, but they tend to be within the £70-£150 range depending on your region and the seriousness of your rules transgression.

A freedom of information (FoI) request carried out by Autocar earlier this year found that a few councils have added rules around vehicle length to their own car parks in addition to the more commonly seen weight and height restrictions. For example, Wokingham council updated its rules in June 2023. The other councils who have 5-metre restrictions (based on those who responded to the FoI) are South Hampshire, Broadland, South Suffolk, and West Devon.

According to Thurrock’s response to the FoI request, cars over 5.35 metres have been banned from its car parks since 2005, so even with this more generous allowance, the BMW i7 would still technically be in breach of the rules as it’s 41mm longer.

While it’s interesting to see such regulation changes written out, ultimately you’re more likely to get fined for not parking fully within the marked bay (a clause on pretty much any private or council car park signage) rather than parking an over-length vehicle; it’s highly unlikely you’ll come back to your car to find parking officer will be shuffling around with a tape measure.

Appealing a parking ticket

Whatever the reason you’ve received a parking ticket, it’s helpful to know your rights and how you might be able to appeal. In the case of overly long cars, you might struggle to make a case as councils tend to impose these fines on cars that are parked outside of the marked bays

Nevertheless, it’s always worth looking at the penalty notice in detail to see whether you have any get-out clauses, for example signage was unclear or the bay markings were poor. 

Watch our video on how to appeal, then head over to our guide to appealing a parking ticket for more information, as well as a template letter to get you started.

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