The increase in popularity of SUVs means that there has been a rise in the number of car park incidents.
Research from Accident Exchange shows a 35 per cent increase in accidents taking place in parking areas, with the rise being attributed to spaces being too small to accommodate the current SUV models.
At present, 87 per cent of councils use government guidelines to provide space sizes of 4.8m by 2.4 metres, but that means cars such as Audi Q7, Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and BMW X5 are now too big for many spaces.
However, it is not just SUVs that are increasing in size, smaller models such as the Vauxhall Corsa, which is now 16 per cent larger than it was 15 years ago.
Scott Hamilton-Cooper, director of operations at Accident Exchange, explained: “Drivers are having to squeeze increasingly large cars into spaces that generally haven’t got any larger for a very long time.
“Almost all of the councils we researched carried over the government’s recommendation, which makes things tight for large cars. This could be contributing to the rise in car parking incidents we are seeing. Manufacturers follow the market, and so cars are outgrowing parking spaces.
“Not only are popular SUVs usurping smaller hatchbacks when it comes to new cars sales, older smaller cars are being taken off the street.”