Hi,

Thinking of trading in my Octavia for a newsih Karoq but I'd quite like park assist and a rear parking camera as I'm rubbish at parking in tight spots. Do any of the Karog models have this?

Thanks,

Matt

All current Edition models have front & rear sensors & a rear camera. If you want the car to park itself you need the Parking Package Plus. No idea how many used vehicles are likely to have this option.

Thanks. Is that because the parking package plus is a new thing? The sales person kept talking about 'front and rear sensors' like it was the next best thing. My 2016 skoda has beeping rear sensors so not sure why he was getting so animated about old technology.

Couldn't tell you when self-parking was introduced as a option, but it's referenced in the pre-facelift 2021 manual. So the option isn't new.

It might be worth enquiring with one of the VAG retrofitters to see if it's viable to add to car not supplied with it.

Edited 28 March28 Mar by Rbz5416

Interesting option if need be thanks. When I do a search on Marshall's Skoda Harlow website, there's isn't a 'parking package plus' in features to narrow down the search. There is parking sensors. I mean seriously, parking sensors are standard right? Who would buy a car now without parking sensors?

Maybe try Autotrader's search where you can add keywords? Autotrader is cheaper than Skoda's site for the same cars in any case.

A quick Google found this, which seems to suggest it's around £750 fitted. But you'd need to check they can do later cars with the locked down software & also that it won't invalidate warranty.

Edited 28 March28 Mar by Rbz5416

I had Park Assist on my 2013 VW Touran, it would parallel park and reverse into a normal car park slot but there had to be cars in the slots either side. In both situations the driver controlled speed and chose forward or reverse according to on screen prompts the “car” did the steering. I used it 3 or 4 times if was very unsettling as I was forever thinking it would hit something. The best thing was I learnt that rapid steering at the last minute was the key parallel parking. It did get caught out when trying to park between two Smart cars which are much narrower and it ended up on the pavement as it lined up the drivers side with the roadside of the narrower Smart car. Karoq parking sensors and reversing camera work well together and the door mirrors give a very good view. Personally I wouldn’t have Park Assist but would always have the reversing camera and front/rear sensors. There are two versions of the Reversing Camera basic (which is fine) has straight guidelines and high level which has guidelines that curve that show if you the track.

So not worth the effort then is what you are saying? I just you pressed a button and it did it all better than a human can tucked up nicely flush against the kerb! Clearly not then! On the autotrader website there is a filter called 'previously written off'. Surely that doesn't mean cars that have been in nasty accidents?

At the risk of sounding patronising, there are some videos on YouTube with tips using visual cues to help with parallel parking. Maybe take a look & find a quiet car park to practice in?

I am reasonable at it I guess. My mate can parallel park and get his car into the tiniest of gaps. I have no clue how he is so good at it. It is so annoying. I just figured if a computer could do that for me then I just wouldn't need to drive around the block looking for a slightly larger gap! It's just a 'nice to have' rather than essential. And additionally more so for the other half!

Edited 28 March28 Mar by Mattk53

What would concern me is if technology can park my car in a tighter spot than a person, them someone else could hit it exiting their spot!

Going back to Park Assist, and this may have been updated, in my 2013 Touran to parallel park the driver had to press the Park button and then select Parallel on the dash display, then drive slowly along the road while the car looked for a suitable space. In today’s busy streets it was difficult to both drive slow enough and be able stop in time safely to use the space.

I find Park Assist on my 2023 Octavia useful. When parallel parking, I think it can sense the kerb line (if distinct enough), not just vehicles either side. It seems to always put the tyres a neat 10 cm from the kerb.

For 90° parking it's got me safely into really tight spaces I wouldn't have risked trying myself, with as many as 10 forward and back movements before it's happy! There does have to be a car either side for this - it can't interpret the white line around the bay.

The problem then is how to open the driver's door sufficiently to get out!

I retrofitted the Park Assist on my 22 Style FL (it's like a SEL), as well with Area View 360° (I was lucky enough to find the mirrors): they definetely worth the expense, that is about 1000 Eur including the painting of side sensors! If You want to upgrade just to PA, I recommend You to put the high reverse camera with dynamic guidance lines!

When getting the control unit look for 5QA for PLA 3.0, definitely better than the 5Q0 for PLA 2.0: it's more accurate!

On 28/03/2026 at 16:31, Rbz5416 said:

Couldn't tell you when self-parking was introduced as a option, but it's referenced in the pre-facelift 2021 manual. So the option isn't new.

It might be worth enquiring with one of the VAG retrofitters to see if it's viable to add to car not supplied with it.

Done a couple of jobs for me (Seat Arona and Skoda Karoq) and can highly recommend them.

https://www.mobileincar.com/

Parking in a tight space between 2 cars yesterday afternoon, my attention slipped for a moment while reversing slowly towards the car behind me and the car stopped very suddenly with a sort of bang, which at the time sounded rather like a small collision. Oops I thought and I got out to see if I had pranged the other car, but no - no scrapes or dents. The rear proximity sensors must have actioned the emergency stop procedure, whatever it's called, which is reassuring. Maybe in future I could be a little more relaxed when parking in tight spaces, knowing that the car itself will stop me in time, or maybe that's trusting technology too much to work consistently every time.

1 hour ago, croquemonsieur said:

Parking in a tight space between 2 cars yesterday afternoon, my attention slipped for a moment while reversing slowly towards the car behind me and the car stopped very suddenly with a sort of bang, which at the time sounded rather like a small collision. Oops I thought and I got out to see if I had pranged the other car, but no - no scrapes or dents. The rear proximity sensors must have actioned the emergency stop procedure, whatever it's called, which is reassuring. Maybe in future I could be a little more relaxed when parking in tight spaces, knowing that the car itself will stop me in time, or maybe that's trusting technology too much to work consistently every time.

If the emergency brake worked, as it has to, You can be sure You’ll never cause any damage to You or others!

Point is: will the other car driver put so much attention When coming out of his parking spot?

I'm curious to know how big a gap there was between the cars when yours came to its sudden stop, @croquemonsieur Was it a very near thing, or was there sufficient gap to give you confidence it would always be safe?

11 hours ago, croquemonsieur said:

Parking in a tight space between 2 cars yesterday afternoon, my attention slipped for a moment while reversing slowly towards the car behind me and the car stopped very suddenly with a sort of bang, which at the time sounded rather like a small collision. Oops I thought and I got out to see if I had pranged the other car, but no - no scrapes or dents. The rear proximity sensors must have actioned the emergency stop procedure, whatever it's called, which is reassuring. Maybe in future I could be a little more relaxed when parking in tight spaces, knowing that the car itself will stop me in time, or maybe that's trusting technology too much to work consistently every time.

A few days after I purchased my 2024 Karoq SELin March I was backing up close to a hedge (soft so I knew it won't scratch the car) when the car suddenly slammed on the brakes. Made people walking past look. Reading the manual explained it was a 'feature'.

Being a curious sort, last year I conducted a test with a cardboard box with my towbar attached. The emergency brake was applied in time to prevent hitting the box - but I’ll agree it’s only a fag paper away. More important though was the test with the cardboard box on its shortest side - it wasn’t detected and the car hit it. I did the same with the front assist with similar results. It’s actually quite difficult not to brake!

Octy-FEV - Annoyingly, I can't answer as I pulled forward a bit before getting out, probably so as to be able to examine the damage, of which there wasn't any, of course. I don't know if I can pluck up courage to try again as I'll probably panic and apply the brakes early once the beeps & red warning come up, as thamestrader describes. Anyone else willing to try?

Benja77 - More and more cars on the road will have been fitted with this emergency stop feature, so maybe the day will come when such a collision will hardly ever happen!!!!

I don't know if I can pluck up courage to try again as I'll probably panic and apply the brakes early once the beeps & red warning come up, as thamestrader describes.

Even with just a cardboard box and 2 m clear behind it was still very hard not to brake and wait for the sudden stop.

On 28/03/2026 at 17:42, Rbz5416 said:

Maybe try Autotrader's search where you can add keywords? Autotrader is cheaper than Skoda's site for the same cars in any case.

A quick Google found this, which seems to suggest it's around £750 fitted. But you'd need to check they can do later cars with the locked down software & also that it won't invalidate warranty.

I found my retrofit PLA on Carsystem.eu and it works fine (and got the side sensors painted in car color, paying in total something like 450 Eur, shipping included): only thing they provided me the control unit for the 2.0 version of PLA (the one with code 5Q0): this means You can make a parallel or in line parking. Looking better over ebay and ovoko I found the proper control unit for my car (a 5QA) that allows as well diagonal and exit from any parking.

Last but not least I retrofitted the area view 360°, replacing also the panel and updating its control unit (the area view one) with the proper dataset: saying it's one of the best retrofit I ever done it's not enough! So glad I make it!

Nevertheless my car is a 2022 FL and SFD2 was still unlocked: I heard that from 2024 is quite hard to make such retrofits at the moment!

PS: installation was almost 200 Eur

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Benja77