Cars on Community Lots

[starrling]

Twice I've made community lots with parking areas.  I changed the zone to residential so I could place cars as props on the lots.  But when my Sims visit the lot, the cars disappear.  They're still there when I go back to check.  Is this "standard" (yeah, that's a relative term with maxis)?  Can I get around it with some nifty trick one of you awesome simmers has come up with?   

[Nec]

It is an OFB thing, unfortunately. They changed the way the cars are viewed for some reason (probably because of the selling/car shelf thing), which is also why they take up more than one square now. Sad, because I loved lining the downtown streets with parking meters, cars, and filling the parking lots. I don't know of any workaround except getting the decorative cars at MTS2, but I don't care for them too much. You can't see them from neighborhood view, which I want.

[starrling]

That's what I thought.  What a shame.  They take away good stuff and give us bugs.  Figures.
Thanks for the info though.