Is the Elevator Garage the Next British Import?

You can thank those across-the-pond folk for bringing the Beatles, Coldplay and TV show The Office over here to the states. Whenever something's a hit in England, you can believe that we Americans are bound to take notice and copy the idea until we forget where it even came from. So keep an eye on that really ridiculously nice house on the end of your street and the apparently recession-proof guy that owns it. In several months, he's sure to have installed London's biggest luxury, the Pop-Up Garage...

In very James-Bondish style, affluent Londoners are calling these hidden parking spaces the next "must have" luxury.

To hide your Porche or Jag underneath the lawn, a planter or—oh the irony—the driveway, you can expect to shell out £40,000 (around $60,000 US) and wait for a long time. Londoners are on a four-month waiting list with the hydraulic garage manufacturer, Cardok, so we can't imagine how long it'll take them to start on any custom US orders.

Gotta say this idea is super sleek and probably a great security measure. But for those of us with regular hectic lives and regular paychecks, being able to raise our car from the ground with the push of a keyring button is probably an expensive inconvenience. So expensive that we'd only have a bike left to store after we got it installed.

[ Via Geekologie ]

Comments (6)

So... what do you do when the power goes out? Crank it up by hand?

posted by Paladin on April 6th 2009 at 3:23pm
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This was originally a security issue, to protect from someone planting a bomb on your car. Hard to break into.

My power has gone out once in the last 30 years. And when it did, no one was driving. Maybe a reserve battery could crank it up once the power goes out and leave it up.

posted by funstraw on April 6th 2009 at 4:32pm
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That plus a full size basement garage/batcave would be pretty awesome. Definitely only for those with Bruce Wayne style incomes though.

posted by peshue on April 6th 2009 at 4:35pm
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I've seen parking lots with these in NYC-no?

posted by art on April 6th 2009 at 6:34pm
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I suppose it depends on where you live but the power grid isn't robust everywhere. I was partially joking, but then I recall that I was without power for 9 consecutive days last winter. Having my car held hostage would have been a disaster.

posted by Paladin on April 6th 2009 at 7:34pm
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Two words: backup generator.

posted by sunspot42 on April 6th 2009 at 10:00pm
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