So says online car parking marketplace YourParkingSpace.co.uk following research that has found more than half of motorists have suffered damage to their car when parked in a car park over the past 12 months.

According to the firm, some current cars are more than 20% wider than their original models yet parking spaces have remained approximately the same size over the last 60 years.

Today’s Mini Cooper is 24% wider than the 1959 original; the Honda Civic is 18% wider than the first model launched back in 1973; the Volkswagen Golf is nearly 12% wider than its original 1974 version; while the current Ford Fiesta is 10% wider than the original 1976 version.

‘When it comes to parking spaces, it’s certainly a case of bigger is better,’ says Harrison Woods, former BBC Dragons Den contestant and managing director of YourParkingSpace.co.uk. ‘We see it every day – after location, the number one concern of motorists is the size of the parking space. The number of drivers who are now actively requesting driveways over car parks, purely because of their size, is remarkable.’

He added: ‘It’s time that the industry introduced a recommended minimum parking space size so that drivers know what to expect. Our proposal is to introduce the SizeMark standard, where all car parks that meet this minimum size are awarded an instantly recognisable SizeMark badge to help drivers minimise damage to their cherished cars.’