Best Toy Car Garage

This Christmas I am planning on buying my 2 year old son (he'll be 3 in February) a toy garage. He has loved playing with toy garages at playgroups and friend's houses so I know he will love his own. Also a friend with 4 and 5 year old boys has said her toy garage was one of the best toys she's ever bought.

I am researching the best toy garage to buy and I'm sharing my research below. The choice is very wide. There's wooden toy garages, plastic toy garages, city garages, garages with parking, car washes and all kinds of different accessories. There are also lots of well know toy makers to choose from including plan toy, Melissa and Doug and Kidicraft garages.

If you're looking for a toy garage hopefully you'll find the best toy garage for your child below.

I have a list of things I'm looking for and things I've considered when buying a garage.

Space - A toy garage does take up a lot of space so you need to consider where you will put it. You can get fold away garages but the reviews for these don't seem to be as good.

Durability - I've bought a toy garage before for my son. It looked really good with lots of swirling ramps. However, when he played with it the ramps were always breaking apart and I had to keep fixing them together again. This was frustrating for both of us. Therefore look for a durable garage. You can read reviews to see if other people found them durable.

Age appropriate - There are some good garages designed for younger children with chunkier cars and elements that are easy for little ones to manipulate and without parts they can swallow. Likewise if you're buying for older children you may want to choose a garage which has some more options for imaginative play such as helicopter ports, more levels or a car wash.

Garages that come apart - This factor relates closely to durability of the garage. If the garages have parts such as ramps that fix together, young children like my son may enjoy taking them apart. So then you have to spend ages putting the ramps back together again. I would avoid buying a garage like this again.

If you're buying for a baby from about age 1 up look for a garage with chunky cars which are a little bigger than the diecast cars. Slightly bigger cars are easy for younger children to hold and use.

Many garages designed for 1 year olds have features such as lights and sounds to attract and hold babies attention.

When choosing a garage for young children its worth looking for a garage that will grow with your child to get the most use out of it. So garages with extra pieces such as gates that lift, gas pumps and other features will be great for imaginative play as baby gets older.

My own son is a big fan of the Disney movie cars and you can get toy garages and vehicle playsets which are themed with Disney cars and their characters.

Check one out below.

If you're buying for a child around age 3 plus and they are car mad like my own son, there are other options to consider as well as a toy garage.

Firstly hot wheels tracks make cool and fun toys. My elder son has hot wheels tracks and loves them and my younger son enjoys playing with them and watching them too. The cars whizz around the tracks really quickly. Some tracks only come with one car, so it's worth making sure you have other cars that will fit on the tracks as well.