Park Assist - Are you using it?

[ctan]

Hi, I am curious about experiences with Park Assist. Do you use it? If so how often? Or is it just for show? How reliable is it? Is it quicker to park manually? Does it park too close to the kerb (I remember a comment somewhere in the forum) ? Does your confidence in it grow as you increase the use of it? Are there times when it does not work? Does anyone have problems with it, etc, etc? Would be interesting to read experiences on this.

[mickofoz]

I have used it about twice in 6 months. Yes it does work very well. Is it worth having? No. Will I get it again in my next car? No.

[ctan]

I have used it about twice in 6 months. Yes it does work very well. Is it worth having? No. Will I get it again in my next car? No.

mickofoz, if it works very well, why are you not using it more often? Is it because you find it easier and less hassle to manually park?

[Syd118TSI]

I guess it would depend how often you reverse park between two cars. For most people I'd say it's not often enough to get the value out of a feature like this unless you can't reverse park yourself. Cool feature/option though

[Tux]

I really wanted the front and rear sensors and seeing they come with RVC I thought it was worthwhile as an option. I have no problems with reverse parking at all but will use it for the novelty value I reckon. The auto mirror tilting bizzo is good too but that might be a standard thing anyway...

Sometime you can't tell what options you might use. For instance I have a sunroof on my MINI Cooper S which I 'use' about 10 times a year. I'm not getting one on the GTI but I'm not all that sorry I got it on the MINI.

[coastie]

I use it as often as I can on reverse parallel parks, the only concern for me is that it can measure its distance off the vehicle you are parking behind. If the car has two wheels up on the kerb thus is narrower than a standard vehicle from the kerb your car can end up with two wheels on the kerb as well. It happened on a sloping gutter when I first used it as I was just getting use to the whole idea.

It parks well but the sensors can be frustrated when it needs to remeasure the vehicle space so when the road is busy the people behind can get annoyed as you drive forward and back a second time. Usually I just disengage it and manually put it in without any problem.

I would buy it again as it works well, the mirror tilt is for vehicles with this park assist feature it is not standard on all vehicles.

[Nick401]

Completely biased view point considering i have never used it but,
If you can't parallel park a car you probably shouldn't be driving.
But buy it for the wank factor, fun to show off if you like spending money on gimmicks.

[AznGti]

erm, useless option i think...
generally you will have no problems reverse parking unless your a very careless person or your not really confident reverse parking.
or
think it this way.
1) think about everytime when you go parking, how many times do you actually reverse park.
2) if you reverse park 80% time (like me) ask yourself do you find it hard reverse parking or do you get annoyed because you didn't park it perfect on the first go.
3) after answering these 2 questions you can decide on whether you need that feature.

[hooba]

I bought it simply because it was the only way to get the F+R sensors installed at the factory (I'd prefer not having holes put into the car aftermarket) and because it was the only way to get the automatically tilting mirror. I'll avoid using the park assist when I get the car as I've found that reverse parking is a skill that requires practice or else you get rusty.

[MkVIGTI]

I've only used it a few times, more like a party trick for me I can definitely park it faster myself!

[JIMMYP]

Used it for the first time tonight. Was very impressed! Very quick to park, and effortless. Those Germans sure have mastered precision! Only concern was that it seems to park really close (like a few cm's max) to the kerb. Anyone had any probs scratching the new alloys???

[guliver_twist]

i only use it once in a blue moon to show off haha.. yea not a fan of how close it gets to the curb.. never had a problem with it hitting it though..

[BBP]

If you can't park a car the size of a Golf, you really need to ask yourself ....... "Can I drive?"

The reversing camera is all you need. It is a great option. You don't even need rear parking sensors when you have the RVC and the RVC also means you won't run over children !

Every car should have a RVC.

[ctan]

I use it as often as I can on reverse parallel parks, the only concern for me is that it can measure its distance off the vehicle you are parking behind. If the car has two wheels up on the kerb thus is narrower than a standard vehicle from the kerb your car can end up with two wheels on the kerb as well. It happened on a sloping gutter when I first used it as I was just getting use to the whole idea.

It parks well but the sensors can be frustrated when it needs to remeasure the vehicle space so when the road is busy the people behind can get annoyed as you drive forward and back a second time. Usually I just disengage it and manually put it in without any problem.

I would buy it again as it works well, the mirror tilt is for vehicles with this park assist feature it is not standard on all vehicles.

The first time I saw a car with this mirror tilt was 2weeks ago in a Holden Calais. Must say I really like the feature. On the point of the need to remeasure vehicle space, does it happen often? Does it depend on where you position the car to start off? As you get a better feel of this works can you minimize the occurence of this? I guess we do have to remeasure sometimes when parking manually. I am hoping this feature will come in useful in tight spots.

Also notice many replies with concerns on it parking too close to the kerb. Does if make a difference if you allow a wder space between your car and the car beside you when you start? Or is it more dependent on the position of the car behind vehicle?

[ctan]

Used it for the first time tonight. Was very impressed! Very quick to park, and effortless. Those Germans sure have mastered precision! Only concern was that it seems to park really close (like a few cm's max) to the kerb. Anyone had any probs scratching the new alloys???

There is another thread on whether this feature can be reprogrammed. Would take away a lof of concerns if you could adjust the distance to kerb setting. Intially I was of the opinion that it senses the distance to kerb but the posting from coastie seems to dispel this.