[rajivr1612]

I own the Etios Liva which I find very easy to reverse. I have not installed any parking aids. My neighbour parks his Swift behind my car and sometimes I have to move it. Boy its a pretty difficult car to reverse what with high window lines and small rear glass. Even with reverse aids I am very anxious while reversing it.

[McLaren Rulez]

I knew the answer for the easiest to reverse immediately - it has to be the Omni. Dead easy to reverse because the car is basically a box with fantastic all round visibility.

[MDED]

I currently own a Honda Jazz 2016 SV MT variant and it comes with stock reverse camera with brilliant quality view. Still I found my erstwhile Alto Lxi easy to reverse and park. Having said that, despite having a camera in my new jazz i have scraped my vehicle in Saidapet at Chennai in a tight parking spot. Now, whenever I go to any mall or movie, I ask my wife to get down from the car and direct me to the parking slot completely. I really like the idea of getting down from the car and gauge the area wherein the vehicle has to be parked. There might be situations where the traffic behind you will not allow you to get down from the car for assessment, best way; like old school, put your vehicle in reverse gear and turn your head extreme left and look behind.
I don't believe in keeping soft toys and your tissue boxes on the rear parcel tray. Period.

[vinya_jag]

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[Ruchir031]

I'll only tell the cars I have and ever reversed.
WagonR 2007 - easiest to park anywhere, I don't ever use any mirrors to park this car, look back, release clutch, steer and done! That easy!

City 2015 - The look back technique doesn't work with this due to high parcel tray, so I never bother doing it. However with the 3 RVMs it is very easy to park even on narrow roads and the stock camera had very nice quality when you need to judge the distance for behind cars/walls

Jaguar XJL - impossible. I say this particularly for Delhi-NCRs. Due to the sheer length of the car it's impossible to judge the distance from the side mirrors. I once mistakenly took the car to lajpat nagar in Delhi and it took me a good 20 minutes to park it with the help of 3 people, 2 to stop incoming traffic/pedestrians and 1 to help me park. Altho on wider roads parking the car is not as difficult with all the technology onboard.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

The Amby has a really thick C pillar and no outside mirrors. It was just looking around like a maniac while inching your way out of a parking spot. Combined with no power steering, it's an art to drive that.

Add to it the 4 drum brakes which doesn't work that well while going reverse. And with no hand brakes as well, it really was an art to reverse park on slopes.

[Unavowed_X9]

Easiest vehicles to reverse in my personal experience as follows (first in order of ease. this is my personal opinion and not intended to hurt any car lovers' sentiments):
To be honest, my reversing skills are pretty decent where I need just a couple of inches on either side to manage to do so...but...)

1. Mitsubishi Pajero GLX (the older model which i am presently using). The straight edges, the large rear view mirrors, excellent visibility, the well weighted responsive steering and its hatch like nimble movements make this huge SUV a breeze to reverse and park despite its size!!! Hard to digest but you got to try it. Fellow Paj owners will agree!

2. Hyundai Santro. The next best easiest to handle. Small, visible edges and large RVMs.

3. Opel Corsa. Okayish. But the small mirrors and the seating arrangement dont help much.

4. Maruti Swift DZire. A pain to reverse with its small rear windscreen, thick C-pillars and bulging sides that make it difficult to judge.

5. Volkswagen Vento. Scary without the parking sensors! Small mirrors and the small rear windscreen.

6. Ford Endeavour (new). Too many electronics scare the hell out of someone who is more into working by sight. So distracting, that leave alone reversing, driving in traffic itself in scary with its constant beeping to alert the driver for presence of vehicles withing 1-2 ft from vehicle.

7. BMW 5-Series. Classy, but a real bummer when it comes to reversing. The length of the vehicle makes me think twice before even getting in. Better to have a roof-top 30 degree cam to monitor its moves.

[riteshritesh]

Originally Posted by silverado

If you are reversing is a particular stretch for such a long time, I believe you must be very comfortable with any car. The question is how does it feel when reversing at any other place?

I am a born natural when it comes to parking , so I may be considered an exception. I have no qualms in parking a Tata 407 in parallel spaces too. The fact that I depend on mirrors for parking, gives me an advantage in parking even poor visibility rear windowed cars in newer territories too.

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Add to it the 4 drum brakes which doesn't work that well while going reverse. And with no hand brakes as well, it really was an art to reverse park on slopes.

Just an off-topic anecdote.

I was 14 when Dad decided that I should learn driving properly. Small town, known folks and so it wasn't a big deal back then. My brother is an expert driver and so he was instructed to teach me.

We went to a college ground on a Saturday. I was all gung-ho to show off and drive around. He took a newspaper and parked himself near some steps. Told me to get in and put the car in reverse. Told me to go around the whole area in reverse for like 2 hours. That's all I did. One hand out the window, sticking my head out and looking back and driving the car backward. Left, right, straight, in circles - I was so mad and fed up that I came home and complained to Dad. His response was priceless

"It's easy for any idiot to press the gas and go forward. It takes a real driver to actually reverse the car in proper fashion. Learn this and you are all set to drive around town"

Many years later, I am thankful to my brother for this valuable lesson.

[ayankm]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

"It's easy for any idiot to press the gas and go forward. It takes a real driver to actually reverse the car in proper fashion. Learn this and you are all set to drive around town"

I have a friend who is an expert when it comes to driving in reverse. He can probably drive all day in Bangalore traffic in reverse. Needless to say his parallel parking skills are way too good. He used to drive a Maruti 800. Couple of months back he has bought a new I20. I am yet to see if his reverse driving skills are same as before with this new car.

BTW the Eon is quite easy to reverse given the adequate side mirrors. However, the back window is quite small and makes coming out of a tight spot a bit difficult.

[anjan_c2007]

The most difficult car or rather light motor vehicle to reverse is a jeep with a trailer. We do not use trailers in our cars like the Westerners. But we do use jeeps with trailers, though the prictice has become rare.

I have been on many interview boards for driver's recruitment and promotions/upgradations. And this idea of mine was borrowed from one Mr Kapila (I forgot his initials), who headed an unit of the Central Silk Board, Chinoor (A.P.now Telangana) in a place where I was stationed. Their department had the use of trailers with the jeeps as they mainly worked on silkworms. So did mine viz. Geological Survey of India with rock and mineral samples and also tentages- lately it has become rarer as officers do not carry and pitch tents. They prefer to hire accomadation (now officially permissible) in the various villages where they are assigned duties for geoscientific field work.

Back to the topic, Mr Kapila once had to recruit one or two drivers. He told his staff to park the jeep (it was a Mahindra metal body CJ 500D) with a trailer at the office gate, with the front facing outwards. And he told his staff to check the licence of each candidate, allow him to take the driver's seat and drive. Only the candidates who are able to reverse the jeep with the trailer till the office building entry door (it was about 75 metres away) should be allowed to walk inside and attend the interview. Mr Kapila and his team of interviewers were awaiting the right candidates. They got their choice and good ones too.

Hence I too adapted this strategy, whenever I was on the interview board of my department to recruit or even promote/ upgrade drivers.

Sometimes reversing a jeep with a trailer becomes a necessity in narrow streets or places of work and though trailers are not much in use, these days the newer drivers are not very well aware of even driving a jeep in forward gears with a trailer.

[Paragkash]

My Toyota Etios has a great compact turning radius and is easy to maneuver.
With its retro-fit camera parking assist, reverse parking is very easy in tightest of spaces. I have parked my car with just 2 mm distance from the car at the back.
I admit that I should have also had proximity sensor along with the camera. It would have been a great help.

[hangover]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Sometimes reversing a jeep with a trailer becomes a necessity in narrow streets or places of work and though trailers are not much in use, these days the newer drivers are not very well aware of even driving a jeep in forward gears with a trailer.

Tell me about it. We buy bore well water from an outside vendor for our factory. It usually comes in a Tata 609/709 type truck.
Occasionally they send a tractor with a 5000 L trailer tanker.

The sump is reached by reversing about 10 car lengths and a left hand 90 degree turn of another 5 car lengths. So it is inevitable that some skilled driving is needed.

Plus it slopes upwards while reversing and the trailer weighs about 5 tons with water.
Even if he drives forwards while delivering he still has to reverse all the way back empty.

This jeep/tractor with trailer is THE most difficult combination to reverse.

You have to turn the wheel right to go left while reversing. If the hinge (b/w tractor) angle is not right you have to turn right to go right.
Or something. And this is just while reversing.

I tried it once. I had 5 helpers to guide me. I decided that being a tractor driver is not a good choice for a career.

My daily drive is a 1st-gen City. It is a piece of cake to reverse it guided just by your mirrors.

I also fixed the small 1.5 inch diameter convex mirrors at the corners of the ORVM's.
So I can actually see the rear tires while reversing. The occasional U turn on ghat roads is a walk in the park.
Elephants have been known to stop and gape in awe.

[AutoSphere]

In addition to the views captured from all the previous post, I face a challenge on an additional dimension.

Recently, I have been doing TDs on AMT cars, which are jerky when you just start moving. While in the forward gears, some AMTs have the creep function, but while reversing, this jerky motion is difficult to handle.

Would love to hear experiences from the others.

[ashis89]

From my experience, the M800, Zen and Alto (old) were the easiest. I am the old school type and use the RVM and ORVM for reversing. The boxy/straight cut design coupled with a large rear glass, of certain hatches and SUVs are useful while parking. For example - Estilo, WagonR, Santro, Scorpio, Sumo, Pajero, etc. Rear mounted wheel on the SUVs can obstruct the view to a certain extent in a few cases.

On the other hand, it was/is a handful for me to park/reverse a Civic, a Baleno (hatch), etc. The small racked rear window glass offers too little view, C-pillar creates huge blind spots, ORVMs are small and bulging lower rear part of the car (above the rear wheel) is difficult to judge. I am sure people who drive these cars daily will get accustomed to the dimensions and the blind spots of these cars. For people like me who drive them intermittently and yet, frequently I find it a bit tough.

PS: I find the power mirrors to be a boon in my car. A camera can be some additional help if to get the view just below the rear glass (I don't have one though). I can happily make do without parking sensors.