Difficulty to park the truck downtown - underground parking too low

Neils

New member
Jan 28, 2025
24
5
Montreal
Anyone else who drives their GX550 downtown to work, have an office building with indoor parking where the ceiling height is limited ? Here in Montreal, the office building I work at has a max height (cement ceiling) of 6' or 72". The GX550 is 75.6" so say 76" and add another 2" of safety clearance so 78". And that is without lifting the suspension to allow for beefier tires on 22" rims.

I am going to try and head to the local dealer this weekend to leave a deposit and hop on the wait list, but in the meantime, I have to rethink where the heck I am going to park this thing. Since my meetings start early, I often find it easier to drive into work and take my meetings from the truck, instead of taking public transit and walking. Plus it allows me to enjoy the vehicle I am paying for as well.

Anyone else in this same situation ??
 
With my Thule box I can only park in the 30 spots right around the entrance to the lot, can't go down. In a pinch I park in the contractor spots. Building manager likes me.
 
Anyone else who drives their GX550 downtown to work, have an office building with indoor parking where the ceiling height is limited ? Here in Montreal, the office building I work at has a max height (cement ceiling) of 6' or 72". The GX550 is 75.6" so say 76" and add another 2" of safety clearance so 78". And that is without lifting the suspension to allow for beefier tires on 22" rims.

I am going to try and head to the local dealer this weekend to leave a deposit and hop on the wait list, but in the meantime, I have to rethink where the heck I am going to park this thing. Since my meetings start early, I often find it easier to drive into work and take my meetings from the truck, instead of taking public transit and walking. Plus it allows me to enjoy the vehicle I am paying for as well.

Anyone else in this same situation ??
Yes! I had a 2021 Jeep Gladiator, and it would fit most parking lots in Montreal. I didn't expect the GX 550 to be taller, but it is. The only indoor parking lot I could find downtown that would fit the GX 550 was at CN station. Just returned from a trip to Ottawa and there the garages are worse than Montreal. Height restrictions were 5' 9", 6'. Had to park in an outside parking lot.
 
It’s just hit or miss based on the building vintage mostly.

My building proper is only 6 feet, across the street where I park it’s 6’3”.

My primary client just signed a lease for a building that has 5’11” clearance, I might have to drop them lol

Extra height is nice, but also very expensive. Vehicles didn’t used to be so tall, even full size trucks were nowhere near the height of a GX a decade and a half ago

Height and parkades was a big reason I went with GX and cancelled my INEOS grenadier order
 
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The struggle is real.

I guess you could air down haha
The only vehicle I know where that is easy to do is the Military version of the Hummer. You could deflate and inflate from inside the cab. I had a 1987 Land Rover Defender, and I had a device on each tire stem that I could easily deflate the tires and had an on-board compressor to fill them back up. Never tried to park that truck inside. That was a true off-road vehicle.
 
Funny story. Had a coworker who used to play hockey and they had a box express van loaded with guys and gear who snuck into a parkade at their hotel one time. Nbd.

Well want to know what happened when the driver went to go bring the vehicle around the next day after all the guys and gear were out?

Scraped the roof on every beam on his way out until he dropped the tires by 20 psi haha
 
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Glad this thread got some traction cause tomorrow I am going to the dealer and I have 2 choices, throw in the towel and drive off with a very sporty (inside) fully loaded F-Sport 3 TX that would likely fit every parcade downtown and can drive off with it now, or wait patiently for a GX and then deal with the parking struggle and gas mileage one I own it far into the future (1-2 years).

Meanwhile my VW Atlas has some electrical problems (sensors, digital console), plus my rear view mirror just broke off. Plus am driving on stiff coilovers for a sport look, so am kinda looking forward to getting into something more comfy and luxurious too.

Gonna be an emotional decision but back to this topic, I downloaded an app called ClicknPark which not only shows all of the indoor parkcades and outdoor lots but also the height of the indoor ones. Also gives you the walking distance in time to your destination for the parking spot. So gonna try a couple of the (claimed) higher lots and see if they could accommodate the GX.

Like someone said above, has to do with buildings that were built decades ago when cars and trucks were much lower. Plus Montreal people drive mostly with cars and rarely with trucks. You see very few Suburbans and Escalades here.
 
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Not sure what's going on in Canada. The shortest parking garage in Boston is 81" tall, and some of these garages are pretty old.

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My inlaws are in Montreal area (South Shore) so it'll be good to hear if there's any covered options when we visit downtown

Living in the GTA I just take transit to work, it's a PITA to fight downtown traffic here with the perpetual construction
 
What is the reason for such low heights of parking garages in Canada?
It borders on insanity.
There also aren’t a ton of standalone parkades here, a lot of parking downtown is underground and there are some regulations around parking spots per sq footage so my guess is developers/builders cram as many floors in as they can without digging deeper than necessary.
 
Spoke to the parkade manager yesterday in the downtown building where I work, and he said basically what I already guessed. Most mid and high rise buildings in Montreal were built in the 70's and 80's, and back then the focus was not on super high SUV's, it was any size car that fit well below the 6' ceiling height.

He went on to tell me the struggle is real, that so many F-150's and other higher SUV's attempt to go down the ramp, only to either stop to remove their antennas, or to scrape their roof rails or worst scrape their roof. Then they backup scratching it more, to head to another parkade, only to find similar heights, and finally end up parking outdoors, crammed into the space with the outdoor parking lot owner who wants to make the most money with his space, and having door handles practically touching.

Based on my experience last night (which I will post in a separate thread) about leaving a deposit at a dealer, and his feedback to me, I am starting to sway in the TX direction more and more (I know that hurt to write it too, will change my mind 1000 more times by then, not to worry, no need to talk me down).
 
Spoke to the parkade manager yesterday in the downtown building where I work, and he said basically what I already guessed. Most mid and high rise buildings in Montreal were built in the 70's and 80's, and back then the focus was not on super high SUV's, it was any size car that fit well below the 6' ceiling height.

He went on to tell me the struggle is real, that so many F-150's and other higher SUV's attempt to go down the ramp, only to either stop to remove their antennas, or to scrape their roof rails or worst scrape their roof. Then they backup scratching it more, to head to another parkade, only to find similar heights, and finally end up parking outdoors, crammed into the space with the outdoor parking lot owner who wants to make the most money with his space, and having door handles practically touching.

Based on my experience last night (which I will post in a separate thread) about leaving a deposit at a dealer, and his feedback to me, I am starting to sway in the TX direction more and more (I know that hurt to write it too, will change my mind 1000 more times by then, not to worry, no need to talk me down).
Hurts to say this but the TX is the right choice for 95% of people considering a larger Lexus SUV. On the other hand if you go too heavily on the needs vs wants we'd all end up driving a minivan or a Corolla :)
 
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Spoke to the parkade manager yesterday in the downtown building where I work, and he said basically what I already guessed. Most mid and high rise buildings in Montreal were built in the 70's and 80's, and back then the focus was not on super high SUV's, it was any size car that fit well below the 6' ceiling height.

He went on to tell me the struggle is real, that so many F-150's and other higher SUV's attempt to go down the ramp, only to either stop to remove their antennas, or to scrape their roof rails or worst scrape their roof. Then they backup scratching it more, to head to another parkade, only to find similar heights, and finally end up parking outdoors, crammed into the space with the outdoor parking lot owner who wants to make the most money with his space, and having door handles practically touching.

Based on my experience last night (which I will post in a separate thread) about leaving a deposit at a dealer, and his feedback to me, I am starting to sway in the TX direction more and more (I know that hurt to write it too, will change my mind 1000 more times by then, not to worry, no need to talk me down).
Too bad there’s no real good way to go back & rebuild these garages for modern cars. I mean even walking in some of them is a pain they’re so low. I guess people were shorter then too.
 

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