Choosing a car lift for your home garage: buyer's guide to four post lifts, two post lifts, in-ground, and single post lift systems reviewed and compared.

To Lift or Not Lift That Is The Question!

With the price of car lifts dropping under $2,000 in the last few years, many are considering the purchase of a car lift for two general reasons — storage and/or maintenance.
When choosing a lift, you essentially have four basic types of lifts: four-post, two-post, in-ground, and single-post lifts. While each has its own advantages and disadvantages, it is unlikely that the homeowner will have an in-ground lift and therefore that type won't be considered here. Nor will specialty scissor lifts, portable lifts, or other hybrids be discussed.

Four-Post Lifts

Some of the advantages of a four post lift are:

1.	Storage (you can park a second car under the lifted car),
2.	The fact that this type of lift typically does not have to be anchored to the ground, and That the four post "footprint" is generally smaller than a two post lift.
3.	Another couple small advantages of the four post lift are that most four-post lifts have caster sets available which allow you to roll the lift around the garage, and if you are putting a second car under the lifted car, most four post lifts have drip trays to catch the wayward carbon footprints of our vintage cars.
4.	Yet another advantage to storing a car on a four-post lift is that it doesn't leave the car with the suspension hanging down over a long period of time. However, maintenance on a four post lift is not as convenient as on a two-post because you are forced to work around the ramps and in some instances will have to use a jacking tray to elevate the car off the ramps to perform maintenance.

Two-Post Lifts

The main advantage of a two-post lift is that this is the easiest lift to perform vehicle maintenance on. You do not have the ramps of a four-post lift to work around, nor the need for a jacking tray. Disadvantages of the two-post lift include:

1.	The need to bolt the lift to the ground,
2.	Sometimes two post lifts can require a thicker concrete base depending upon the capacity of the lift,
3.	They are not as good for long term storage, and
4.	The usually have a larger footprint that the four-post.
5.	Also, when used for "stacked" car storage, there is no easy way to catch or prevent drippings from the lifted car reaching the bottom car.

Single-Post Lifts

Single-post lifts are a more recent development in car storage and maintenance. The single-post lift has the advantages of long term storage for cars since the cars are parked on ramps, and this type of lift generally does not require being bolted to the floor. However, this type of lift is the worst for vehicle maintenance as they have two obstacles to overcome, the ramps and the support beams that do the lifting. Not to mention that their cost still is several times higher that two or four-post lifts.

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