According to the Victorian Planning Provisions 52.06-9 the length of a car park space is a minimum of 6.7 metres for parallel and 4.9 metres for 45º, 60º and 90º parking bays.
I have a four door Ford Ranger. It has a tow bar and a roo bar on it.
According to the Ford Ranger brochure it is 5531 mm long. This doesn’t include the roo or tow bars.
Before getting started here’s the lengths of other utes in a similar class as a four door Ford Ranger:
Mitsubishi Triton is 5389 mm long.
Holden Colorado is 5347 mm long.
Nissan Navara is 5296 mm long.
Volkswagen Amarok is 5254 mm long.
Isuzu D-Max is 5030 mm long.
Notably, none are as long as the Ford Ranger.
None of these utes’ brochures / websites seem to take into account the addition of a tow bar which many come standard with.
As roo and nudge bars are extra features none list these.
When I first began driving and more importantly parking my Ranger I discovered one very notable thing, which is probably obvious given the dimensions listed on this page so far.
If any car parks are built to absolute minimum regarding their degree-based parking bays there will be trouble because the bay is smaller than the vehicle.
This isn’t too much of a problem when you’re in the suburbs, there’s usually space to park away from everyone. At least I try to park away from the main thoroughfares of car parks so my Ranger is not poking out too much.
In almost all situations in parking bays I have found, and had to learn to reverse park, because I have found it to be quite difficult to get the Ranger into a space where it has some semblance of fitting. Because reversing in means I can get it right up to the line with the aid of sensors and reversing camera.
In Melbourne this becomes even more necessary. In the city you don’t have the luxury of being able to park away from where the busy bits are, in a parking structure there is no ‘quiet’ part in the city. Everyone’s looking for a parking spot.
I have found two locations where I’ve found that I can squeeze a little more space out of a location to fit my large vehicle.
Firstly the Federation Square car park.
Which at first glance doesn’t have any spaces that offer any more room than any other location.
Federation Square car park slatted wall
It is easy to get to, if you’re coming from the south, south east or east. It’s accessible from CityLink via Batman Parade or if not the tollways then going along Wellington Parade and joining Flinders Street from the east.
Inside the parking structure there’s one or two things to note if you’re parking a larger vehicle. Due to the way that the Federation Square car park is constructed you can see there’s gaps between the support bars that hold the structure up. This allows you, if you’re reversing in to get your vehicle back a little further, or more to the point the tow bar back against the metal mesh. It gains you a couple of millimetres here.
Secondly, and this is more for other people, though also for yourself to keep your vehicle out of the way.
The way the Federation Square car park is laid out the ramps leading to each level are not right at the far side wall of the car park (as they are in some car parks). This means there’s about four parking spots on the east side of the car park which aren’t in the way of the car park traffic trying to go up or down the levels of the Federation Square car park. It’s here that I often try to park as they’re easier to reverse into (as it takes me a few goes to get it absolutely right) and here you’re out of the way even if while the wheels may be within the parking spot the car is not.
Federation Square spaces on east beside ramp
Federation Square spaces on east side near ramp/stairwell
Next up is the QV car park.
This is not as easy to get to.
It’s in the middle of Melbourne.
My preferred access is from Russell Street, just after the Lonsdale Street intersection.
It’s an entrance where you have to have some trust that they’ve designed it properly because the turning from the street level looks like a brick wall and you have to turn left into it. <Street View link>
Thankfully it’s actually a lot easier than the blind corner that it is would suggest. Just beware of pedestrians who ignore the fact they often do not have a green crossing signal.
Once inside and down the surprisingly steep ramp down into the car park don’t bother with the first level. Continue down to the second or even third level.
QV car park - extra space
Here you need to find car park spaces along the furthest back wall, they’re thankfully numbered so I can say number 2253 or around abouts that.
These spaces have been drawn onto the floor, but there’s space, overhang behind it which is not counted within the space. This allows people with large vehicles to back (or even drive in forwards as there’s a surprising amount of room) and have your vehicle fit into the space with ease.
These are the only two car parks I’ve parked in with any regularity in Melbourne. As these two are basically perfectly located for a majority of things I might need to do in the CBD.
The other thing to note is height, which does determine from the outset which car parks you can even get into.
Here’s the dimensions for the above utes.
Ford Ranger: 1848 mm
Volkswagen Amarok: 1834 mm
Nissan Navara: 1795 mm
Holden Colorado: 1780 mm
Mitsubishi Triton: 1780 mm
Isuzu D-Max: 1735 mm
Ideally a height limit for a car park would be 2.0 metres. There are a lot of car parks in Melbourne that list their max height as 1.9 metres.
Federation Square car park level 3
As that only leaves 52 mm, I prefer to find car parks with 2.0 metres, that at least gives me 152 mm. Still not a gigantic amount but it’s a little bit better, just in case there’s something rogue hanging down.
Not that this is likely to be an issue, but I used to drive a car that compared to the Ranger was significantly lower. I used to park that in the Victorian Arts Centre which lists their height restriction for their car park as 1.9 metres. That car park in particular feels a lot lower than 1.9 metres.
To wrap up now.
Federation Square’s pros is that it’s easier to get into if you’re coming from the south or east as it’s not within the CBD. Cons are that all the spaces are mostly the same size and any that allow over hang (as I mentioned for the QV) are positioned close to the lifts which means they’re always already taken. Another con is its position. It’s within walking distance of the MCG. This is a problem because it fills up quickly and overflow is in vacant land beside the car park. Not good if you want to park and know your vehicle is securely parked.
QV level 3 car park
QV’s pros are there is overhang which means you can fit larger vehicles into the spots. Cons; it’s in the middle of the CBD, getting into it involves a seemingly narrow turn, exiting involves going up a steep incline (if you exit onto Little Lonsdale street), once within the turns to get down to the second and third levels are somewhat blind and narrow.
But as I said being able to fit my vehicle into the space is a significant plus.
Price wise both Federation Square’s car park’s prices and QV’s car park’s prices are listed on their websites. There’s about $2 difference between them, the only notable thing is that QV’s night rate begins an hour earlier than Federation Square’s.