Park Assist..,,is it any good?

[yojumitu]

I am considering adding park assist to my OCTY III. Would love to know if this feature is worth getting. are the reverse parking sensors good enough.? Can I park in parking bay between  2 cars head on or is it only for reverse parking? 

[The Plumber]

Hi and welcome,

 

also pondering the same question, albeit I've stretched the options budget to far as it is on my order. However will I miss the front sensors I have now, particularly with a larger car than I'm used to :wonder:

 

Just wish there was a separate front sensor option for half the price.

 

 

TP

[Orville]

Depends how well you can park yourself. If you are confident you can park much faster and within tighter spaces than park assist will allow. If you park like my wife it will prevent lots of bumps and save her having to find a space you can fit a bus in. I personally think it is a gimmick, although rear standard sensors can be pretty handy.

[TheWanderer]

Well if it's as good as I've experienced then you have nothing to worry about.

 

A mate's Kia has got it and on the occasions I've used it, bar on one occasion, it's been superb and tackled spaces I would never have taken. 

[zacherynuk]

I tend to get on my high horse about such things.  If you can't confidently parallel park, you should not have the same licence as the rest of us.

 

We have a separation of people who learned to drive automatics vs manual - we should also consider all of the other modern factors, although ABS is covered in the modern syllabus, non-ABS isn't so much (instructors discretion) - People learning to drive with ESP, traction control,  Hill control, blind spot indication, auto dimming mirrors, auto brake, auto park and soon in Germany auto multi storey parking with 3rd party black box... these people can still go out and buy a fully manual car, which is scary.  

 

Scary like people who pass their motorbike test on a 125 can go and buy a 1000 ninja sport.  They have a decent community who are always talking the death aspect.  We have a community who are always talking the safety in a crash aspect.

 

Anyway, I have used the focus auto park and been in a merc as a passenger whilst it's auto park was demonstrated.  Neither experience made me 'wow' - I can't see the benefit - tech is interesting though.  I like tech and I like driver aids, but it comes down to basics - If you can't park, if your can't judge rudimentary positions and sizes in relation to other objects you should not be driving a car. End of.

 

Humous here too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4jP0KqyIIU

[TheWanderer]

Oh thanks... I used it to see what it was like and I found it quite useful, but as I don't use the Kia that much I wouldn't rely on it.

 

I'm quite capable of parking my car and a lot of people who know me say how good I am at parking, in that I'm exceptionally neat, tidy & straight, also how few moves I do it in and how close I can park against a wall without actually touching it only using my mirrors, which is usually about 1" away from the wall, if the wall is no higher than the bottom of the passenger window.

 

Or is your comment directly aimed at the so called "fairer sex" who TBQH in most cases shouldn't ever be given a driving license. 

[zacherynuk]

^ haha no I wasn't having a go; and I realise the post was a bit dickish; I am just genuinely concerned that people will take this tech and use it blindly. Not as an aid, but as an everyday feature.

 

The roads are becoming a busier, cars are getting bigger and faster. Every single day I see people endangering those around them, usually frivolously, but often with far more dire consequences.  Parking is a simple, repeatable and required everyday use of your vehicle that make you better at controlling that vehicle in all situations.  I don't want somebody who doesn't fully understand the size and inertia of their vehicle ploughing into me and my family on a country lane at 60 mph because they don't know how wide their vehicle is.  Nor do I want somebody going out and buying a beautiful 90's porsche 911 or TVR and losing it because they have never (had to) given a thought to acceleration, braking, understeer, oversteer or parking.

[Orville]

Many people lack confidence when reverse / parallel parking. Using driving aids can take away the fear and make fitting into or getting out of small spaces less daunting. It can be a very useful tool but it is not for everone. It can also be argued that some who are over-confident will benefit from the system.

 

From using the original PA on a Superb, my feeling was that it slowed me down and required more manouvers than I would otherwise take. I do however like rear parking sensors, and wouldn't be without them.

 

My advice is to ask for a demo in car with PA ans see whether or not it is for you.

[LadyVienna]

I can park fine and never had a prob with it however I speced park assist on my vrs estate. My reason is because its a larger car than I'm used to and the front sensors are fab for parking a large car in a small parking space such as I have at home. Also think it could be very handy for parking near hospitals where you are lucky to find spaces as I prob wouldn't manually try a space that's only 60cm bigger than my car lol. That said I haven't used it yet haha

[Neily03]

But why park in such a small space to need the car to do it for you, you're just asking for someone else to damage it, be it with their doors or just driving out of their space. Park at the back of the car park where there's loads of space, easy.

Edited 29 October, 2013 by Neily03

[BigfootW]

I have it on mine and it's well worth it for the front & side parking sensors alone.

Watching the car do it itself is awesome, useful for parking it tight car parks and for getting out of them too.

It always parks rear end first. And I love it, well worth the cost . Really

[Dr Zoidberg]

But why park in such a small space to need the car to do it for you, you're just asking for someone else to damage it, be it with their doors or just driving out of their space. Park at the back of the car park where there's loads of space, easy.

 

You assume that there is a big empty car park to use. Not always the case.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Scary like people who pass their motorbike test on a 125 can go and buy a 1000 ninja sport.

 

Not any more.

There are different levels of bike licence now. Pass on a 125 and that's all you can ride.

[kalpat]

But why park in such a small space to need the car to do it for you, you're just asking for someone else to damage it, be it with their doors or just driving out of their space. Park at the back of the car park where there's loads of space, easy.

 

I would have gone for front sensors if they were a separate item but not as part of the park assist. Those with it speak about getting into small spaces which is fine, but unless the cars in front or behind have a similar system I would worry that they would damage my car trying to leave their parking space. If the parking space looks tight try somewhere else. That might not be too easy but I would prefer it rather than chance damage.

[Stuarted]

... It always parks rear end first ...

.

I am amused by motorists who drive all the way to the sea side, and in a half empty car park where the pedestrian exit to the beach is at the back, choose to park right at the front, overlooking the sea, but then decide to park backwards so that their only view is of the car park.

I also enjoy watching women (it always is a woman) carefully reversing into a parking bay in an almost completley empty car park where it would be possible simply to drive forwards into, and forwards out of, every single bay.

Best of all was watching another woman bring traffic flow to a complete standstill, generating a huge tailback, while she laboriously performed an elaborate three-point-turn in a busy one-way street in the centre of my home city, ending up facing the oncoming traffic, so that she could then carefully reverse into a chevron parking bay at the side of the road.  I didn't have time to wait to see how she was going to manage to emerge from the bay without driving forwards against the traffic flow and then performing another elaborate three-point turn.

 

 

[Feebet]

I have it on a New Ford Focus, used it 3 times in over 2 years and that was demonstrating it on 2 occasions !! (Although my system is only for parallel parking, not for bay parking which would probably be used more). 

 

The trouble with park assist in my opinion, it is too time consuming and you can be parked in half the time if you do it yourself.

[PekoSI]

I currently still own a Mk1 Octavia Estate without any parking sensors and have never in almost 10 years of driving hit or even scratched it while parallel/reverse/whatever parking. I have to agree everyone should have a feeling about the size of a vehicle when manoeuvring between obstacles and all this parking aids take that away from you as soon as you start to rely on them too much. I've seen people hitting poles for example because they didn't care to look behind and sensors didn't picked them up.

 

I did a bet one time with a co-worker who can park closer to the wall. Me without or he with parking sensors. Reverse and forward. I won only because he stopped at the continuous beep and had plenty of space left. 

 

I do get rear parking sensors as standard on my ordered Elegance unfortunately. Maybe I'll start hitting poles soon as well 

[Neily03]

You assume that there is a big empty car park to use. Not always the case.

I can always find a proper size parking space

[TheWanderer]

You're lucky then.

[Dr Zoidberg]

I can always find a proper size parking space

 

Lucky you. Others aren't so fortunate.

[Bogdan81]

If you can afford buying this optional, then go for it. You will not be sorry.  It's amazing, and is not just for those who cannot park , but will make your life easier. I've used for 5 times in less than 1 week and never failed. It parked the car in one place where I for sure couldn't park because I am not yet used with the car size.

[TudorM]

People who don't like driver aids because you can do it a lot better yourself and preaching it like whoever uses them has no business in driving a car, should stop using TV remotes, elevators, electricity etc.

 

One would hope ABS and ESP go the way of the dodo as well, right? Driver aids are evil!

Edited 30 October, 2013 by TudorM

[LewJo]

I took it for the front sensors as the wife hit the front end of the yeti while reversing around a corner when it was just 3 days old!

I will probably only use the assist function to freak out passengers.

Lewjo (Joseph)

[kalpat]

I took it for the front sensors as the wife hit the front end of the yeti while reversing around a corner when it was just 3 days old! I will probably only use the assist function to freak out passengers.Lewjo (Joseph)

That was my point I would have liked front sensors, but not the park assist. I wonder how many people who have gone for it purely just to get front sensors. It's just a shame Skoda don't offer that option. I couldn't justify the extra cash for something that would impress or freak out my passengers.

[Bogdan81]

In Romania when it comes about parking sensors you have 3 choices:

a. back sensors - cheapest is like 300 EUR

b. front + back sensors - around 500 EUR

c. Park Assistant(front + back + side sensors and it will control the steeringwheel) - around 800 EUR

 

As I can see, SUK is not friendly at all pretending Park Assistant for the front sensors.