The Citroen C6 garage saga - C6

Before we were about to buy our first Citroen C6, I had request to my husband: we need to find a garage, because I can´t stand the idea to keep this car on the street all the time. Where we live, is a lovely and small village, there is always enough parking space around, BUT the Spanish people are not really known of being the very careful with their cars, and I would go mental to see somebody hitting my car, just because they can´t park in the tight spot. Of course, there is not possible to avoid this 100%, unless you keep the car in the garage forever, but I really wanted to minimize the possibility to be randomly damaged by people who don´t care about THEIR cars, because I care about mine.

Before we started digging into the garage issue, I was relaxed and was sure it will be easy to find one for rent, after all we seen quite a few adverts on various buildings. So we went ahead, bought the car, left it at the mechanic for a revision and to change a few bits and bobs that we knew needed to be changed, and went garage hunting.

Was not a pleasantly surprised to find out that all the adverts were old, already rented or sold properties, so we were out of options. We don´t know many people around, but you can guess, I can´t go and randomly knock on people´s doors if they have a spare garage… So we sent out word to the people we knew if they have heard anything similar we are looking to rent one.

About 2 weeks passed… until finally we got a phone number from one of our acquaintances. There was a garage for sale, but the owners were interested in renting it out as long as there is nobody comes along to buy it. We rushed to see the garage, and while it was not an easy place, we decided to take it, at least as long as we find a better one.

The garage was big enough to fit the car nicely but it was in a weird angle. To get into the garage, we had to reverse down into the garage level first, and from here to make a very precise and exact turn, in an exact -angle to fit it in the door and between the various unmovable obstacles like pillars. On each side there were about 10cm and you had to actually watch it on every side.

Maybe I am cursed with a bad garage spell, because “luckily” at home I haven´t had easy garage either. There too I had to navigate the car (the Audi) in very specific angles to get it in. In my parents place the space is also bad, tight and in angles. So between the two of us, we shared the garage duty the following way: I was driving the car, husband was checking it on the outside to tell me when to stop or what direction to go.

After I parked the car for the first time, I went home. And I had a nightmare and woke up scared that I won’t be able to get the car out. I was truly afraid that if I start with the wrong angle, I will be in such a tight spot that it will take forever to navigate it out.

But having no other choice this garage was the only one we could find, we had it for about 9 months. And it was a 2 person job to get the car in or out. The sensors were helping to a certain degree, but when you have to back in the wall to less than 10cm, the sensors are more annoying than helpful, because they are beeping like crazy. And when you have the same 10cm in 2 or 3 sides, now you can hear the car crying badly and you know, this is the only way to get it in and out.

After the first few times, my nightmare vanished, I knew I can get the car in and out… it was time for my husband to try. And frankly I was not up to the task to guide him from outside. For some reason I keep saying left instead of right, so badly that when I am giving him directions, I am constantly pointing to the right while I am saying left, so no way I could have been the one who tells him to go a little right or left in this case. But because our method worked well, and we rarely had to go alone with the car, we settled to this arrangement.

Here is one of the last entering to this garage: you can hear the beeps …