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A Related Thread

Would consider myself good at reversing. I can get a car into the tightest of spots. At one Great Escape event, Mahindra had a contest where participants had to reverse a Voyager through a track outlined with cones. I won it & got a scale model as the prize.

For design & safety reasons, the rearward view out of new cars will continue to deteriorate. It's a good thing that reversing cameras & parking sensors are becoming commonplace at the same time!

Meanwhile, check out this nutjob from Bhatinda (link to discussion):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aox_4-JNed8

I'm generally happy parking most of the sedans. However, I did have some or other issues with the list below:
1. Ambassador : Reversed into the garage wall projection. Bad assessment, 14 years of age and an impatient father waiting outside. Pure recipe for disaster.
2. Innova : Drove it once. No reverse cams. Was really tough to turn it around.
3. Safari : Not difficult, the mirrors are good. BUT, there's that huge spare wheel. I think a lot of people have the same issue with the Ecosport as well.

I sometimes struggle to reverse my Duster, not because of the dimensions or visibility, but because of the pull type reverse gear - you have to pull up the notch and then put it into reverse. Occasionally, I end up slotting it into the first gear instead and have kissed a few parked bikes.

There are two ideas to prevent minor reversing damages.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7...EFDQ1ZBT21ZT1E
Jeeps have always had a rubber bush fixed on their bonnets. This was to rest it upon on the windshield. Some have fixed them on its rear and front bumpers. A pair at about ladder meeting its perpendicular C.

BMW once had a car's bumper made like a sandwich of rubber and metal. The rubber middle section would move inward upon impact and gradually release that energy into dampner pistons. See drawing.

Corvette stingray had an edition with a canvas top. It was totally waterproof.

It did not have a transparent plastic window at its rear end. In short, you could never back out anywhere.

Some rustic Russians suggested cutting out an opening using a sharp pencil.

Obviously a reliable method had to be found. So they created a periscope type of rear view mirror.

It had an angled long length mirror on its roof. This naturally got a wide angle view of the rear of the car. This was on the car roof like a misplaced spoiler. That light was reflected on to another mirror just inside the roof.

This mirror projected that light to your actual mirror.
This gave a very good situational awareness.

Naturally you had a problem. Do I look at my past as a wide angle cinema or at my future in HD.

Hyundai i10 - quite easy. The rear is almost flat and I have never hit a wall/barrier while reversing. Just have to check before reversing in that there is no short post/tree stump etc , and be extra cautious if there is one. I don't have reverse cam/sensors. Also quite easy to parallel park.

P.S - one feature I really liked in a BMW 3 series (my senior colleague's car in US) is that whenever the car is put in reverse, the ORVMs flip down by some degrees to give you a view of the curbside and where your rear wheel is.

Tata Nano - I found it effortless to reverse in this.. (the only effort was for the low speed steering inputs lol:)

Hyundai Tucson - It's been 2 months since I have been driving this, and since I was graduating from a Nano, it was a bit difficult initially. But now with the 3 mirrors and the parking sensors, it's progressively become quite easy. But I dont think I could do it peacefully without the sensors.

Are AMTs significantly more difficult to reverse, especially if there is a slight slope while reversing into the parking spot? Would be interesting to hear a comparison between AMT and CVT in such a scenario. I need to decide on an automatic hatch soon, and my parking at home has a slight upward slope that one would need to reverse into. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Of the cars that I frequently drive- New EcoSport, New Swift, Duster- I find Duster to be the easiest when it comes to reversing. All 3 cars comes with reverse parking sensors only, however Duster trump's the other 2 with the sheer coverage it's Side mirrors and rear view mirror offers. Those bloated wheel arches lets you precisely know where your rear wheels are.

Can Omni be considered? - We had the Omni and thats where I learned to drive. That was easy, and it could turn on its own foot. And you could see pretty much everything.
Our carpool zen was another car which was a breeze. You could actually see everything around you. But, it was not all that easy, because, it had no power steering.
Then, our current alto is maybe the closest to the Zen with a lot of rear view with those wide mirrors.

Difficult?
Punto for me. My friend bought the Punto and I was supposed to take it to his home. I could barely see what was happening around me. I sat so low in it, that I couldnt even see beside me. Forget reversing. It was my toughest 25Kms that I drove, within Bangalore.

In general I have found hatches quite easy to park as the back glass easily allows me to see where the car ends thus making judgements easy. Sedans have always been tough as I never have a clear judgement of where the boot ends as its not visible to the naked eye. So a sedan absolutely must have rear parking sensors atlest as a minimum to make life easier. I still remember the tough times I had while reversing my old Ikon.

I love the rear camera view in my facelifted S-Cross. Since it includes the bumper in the view. You can see actual distance between rear end of car and the obstacle. Not sure if many cars have this but protruding bumpers are becoming a thing of the past.

Honda Brio with its large glass hatch and good visibility and being small in size. Very easy to reverse in the Brio.

The Indigo CS I've been driving for the past 8 years is such a breeze to reverse. The Swift I owned for a brief period is also OK but would benefit from electonic wizardry in tight spots. The Rapid I recently got is also fairly easy to reverse. The reverse camera and parking sensors may be helpful in close quarters but nothing beats the direct eye sight, IMHO.

You sure are right. I own a Brio which I bought from my brother. He had installed reverse camera and sensors. Both have gone kaput, I miss neither. The flat large glass back ensures you don't miss a thing at the back of the car.

Easiest cra to reverse, well, you bet - it's the Wagon R with that huge glass area and near flat rear, just turn the left ORVM to dip position and you can virtually reverse a Wagon-R anywhere.

Toughest car to reverse? Well, any sedan - yes, most of them. Aha, I once reversed an Isuzu V cross over a Splendor that the rider suddenly came, parked behind the truck and left, I reversed and I literally had my rear left wheel climb up and crush the front tyre of the poor motorcycle, that said; reversing a V Cross without a reversing camera is a nightmare and if you have this situation during the night time then it's a wow situation. :uncontrol

Rest, if I have both my ORVMs and the IRVM, I can simply reverse anything - I mean anything right from cars to tractor + trailer (Yeah, reversed that too) to Tata 2515 (biggest thing ever reversed). Everything is dependent on the ORVMs.

Let the right ORVM be on its position; I can move forward to check close and adjust the left ORVM in a dip position to show your rear wheel and rear bumper edge - after that I don't need any assist; in fact I don't even use reversing camera even if installed.