A Guide for the 99%: What Is A Car Elevator and Why Does Mitt Need One?
Today's driest, and most entertaining, paragraph of political journalism came from Politico's Reid Epstein, who wrote this about the renovation of Mitt Romney's beach house in San Diego:
But it may not help Romney -- whose wealth has caused him trouble connecting with average folks -- to be seen building a split-level, four-vehicle garage that comes with a "car lift" to transport automobiles between floors, according to 2008 schematic plans for the renovation obtained by POLITICO that are on file with the city of San Diego.
Hold on, a what? A car elevator?
Yes, Virginia, there are car elevators. While they're typically part of enormous garages built to hold hundreds of cars in the smallest amount of space, some are built for private houses -- and not just the batcave under Wayne Manor. The Atlantic Wire's Ray Gustini has a great rundown on some of these larger and more opulent elevators.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/a-guide-for-the-99-percent-what-is-a-car-elevator-and-why-does-mitt-need-one/255134/
= new reply since forum marked as read
No elevator? No problem, just park on the roof.
he's planning on becoming Batman
ROCKVILLE, Maryland -- Police in Maryland pulled over a motorist dressed as Batman, but the caped crusader escaped without a ticket.
Authorities pulled over the driver of a black Lamborghini with Batman logo tags last week in Silver Spring outside Washington. The driver was dressed as the Dark Knight -- cape, mask and all. Police, however, weren't impressed and wanted to talk to him about his superhero logo license plate, which isn't an approved plate in the state.
The driver, who goes by Lenny B. Robinson when not dressed as a superhero to visit sick children at hospitals, was able to show them a proper license plate for the car. A video of the stop shows police officers shaking his hand and taking pictures of him with his ride
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2012/03/30/20120330motorist-dressed-batman-escapes-ticket.html
Lets you park 2 cars in 1 space, or have easy access for service work like oil changes. They cost around $2000 bucks - which is 2x the cost of a good, basic gararge door.
?1319468047
I know a couple guys who have service lifts in their own gararges. It's their Man-Cave.
Again, not a 1% thing - these are about the price of a good pool table 
Look, this is a distraction from the real issues of the proposed LaJolla mansion - a 3600 sq ft/floor (50 x 72) monstrosity that will require ripping the whole neighborhood a new asshole. In projects like this, the "elevator" is a line item in hardware. it'll ruin the neighbor's lives for a year. And they would be destroying a very nice Medeterrainan style house which is there now, and any of us would love to live in. My sister is an architecht, who does some high end vacation and retirement homes. What she tells me is that folks focus on 2 occasions when they'e listing their "wants" - A big dinner party, and when the whole family stays over. If you use that as a design target, you end up with a barn of a house that 2 people rattle around in. What a responsible designer does is work out how to satisfy their needs, and some of their wants, in a realistic budget and impact. There are a number of alternatives which would suit the Rommneys better, and be far less spiteful to the neighbors.
This house will be his western White House. It makes sense in his mind to prepare.
This is one of the advantages of living in a planned community. They often have halls and stuff that you can use. The disadvantage, of course, is the HOA fees.
But they aren't "elevators" as much as vertical/horizontal lifts. They lift one car to be stored directly above another (10'-12' garage height).
Not attractive by any means, but they get the job done.
Edit - kinda like these, only with a flat base (no straps) and from the side:
