[vivprasad]

Having booked an SX4 VVT MT due to be delivered sometime in the second week of December, I am looking at the feasibility of installing parking sensors, and as I could feel, very many Team-BHPians were of the view that an SX4 should be fitted with parking sensors. Fine, thats an issue well settled.

To this thread now. Between Friday November 20 and Monday November 23, I crisscrossed the roads of Mumbai and New Delhi. Since the parking sensor issue is so fresh, my eyes automatically strayed to the bigger vehicles trying to see if they carried parking sensors.

Mumbai showed parking sensors in almost 25% of the cars: SX4, ANHC, Inova, Fusion, Optra, even a BMW, Dzire etc could be seen sporting the sensors, with or without the RV camera. I was in Mumbai for less than 24 hrs.

What I saw in New Delhi surprised me. In almost 48 hours that I was there, I guess I saw only about 5 cars with the parking sensors.

I am curious to get the opinion of Team-BHPians on this? Can we take this as a regional phenomenon. There are lots of things that are more popular in one region of a country than another. Is the parking sensor, that aids bigger cars to be better manouvered and is thus of considerable practical utility, not favoured in parts of the country?

[Parm]

honestly speaking i dont like reverse parking sensors, they are kind of irritating equipment!

the charm of using them goes bust in 3-4 months when they stop working!

[s0uljah]

I think a good quality reverse camera is useful in a big vehicle like endevour / safari etc.

In fact I was gifted a reverse sensor + reverse camera and Rear view LCD display which I havent installed till date. Do not see the need for it on the swift. Nice reminder for me to put it in the classifieds

[.anshuman]

I find my parking skills adequate to avoid those ugly looking sensors on my car's bumpers, Sensors in Scorpio sometimes do not detect obstacles, so what the use of paying for them??

[wildsdi5530]

Should be useful in the City ZX. It's got a huge butt. Never can judge the distance. The front is great though. Been planning to get one.

[MileCruncher]

I feel a good parking sensor takes quite a bit of the guess work out of parking. I feel they are more useful in vehicles with large boots and if one is upgrading from a hatch to sedan, it would be very useful.

Coming to issue of Delhi and Mumbai, may be because of the tight parking spaces in Mumbai, Parking Sensors are more utilised

[pb10gagan]

I think that its more about civic sense.

While in Mumbai people prefer to install parking sensors so that they can park their cars well without waking up the society.

Up here in north-india, people care about saving a few bucks and install loud music playing devices instead of parking sensors. So, the moment they put their cars in reverse some really cheesy bollywood song would start playing, and warn anybody within 50 meters of the car, that Mr. So-and-So is reversing his car jumbo jet.

I have seen these nuisances installed on any car, including 800, wagon-R or Indica. Everyone loves this cheap but does the trick kind of thing which will give the neighbor a nervous breakdown.

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by pb10gagan

people install loud music playing devices instead of parking sensors.

True man those things are really irritating. I wonder why no one ever provides a switch. It is fine during daytime but at night or early morning it is hell.

Coming to the topic, I guess it is more to do with parking issues.

[CBlazer]

Originally Posted by pb10gagan

Up here in north-india, people care about saving a few bucks and install loud music playing devices instead of parking sensors.

These are a nuisance and always wondered why people don't install a switch. We have done so on all our cars since mid-90s. Anyway I don't see how loud reverse horns can help one in tight parking situations. Parking sensors and reverse horns play totally different roles.

In Bangalore, I find an increasingly large number of cars sporting parking sensors and/or reverse cameras. It makes a lot of sense to consider these because of the lack of parking spaces here. However only those who actually have these on their cars can comment on their effectiveness.

[Spitfire]

Maybe parking in Delhi is less of a task then parking in Mumbai??

[beejay]

VIVPRASAD, there can be no geographical bias for parking sensors. Its interesting that you were able to calculate so accurate. Wrong information can be misleading. Lets leave it at that.
Or maybe you were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I use my parking sensors effectively and do not solely rely on them. Yet i think its a very good feature. The parking sensors on the BMW is even more accurate.

1.Most of the new cars have parking sensors.
2. Its a very common aftermarket accessory and the next new thing to have fit on a new car.

So these two factors can also contribute to seeing more cars with the same.

[vivprasad]

Originally Posted by beejay

VIVPRASAD, there can be no geographical bias for parking sensors. Its interesting that you were able to calculate so accurate. Wrong information can be misleading. Lets leave it at that.
Or maybe you were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Oh, that was a strong response. Thank you beejay, but there will always be differences in thought and action amongst people of different regions. When I said "regional bias" what I meant was mindset, and mindsets of populations do vary with region. Its a matter of emphasis/priorities etc. as conditioned by prevalent environment. And it can reflect upon many things, including the accessories you use, at home/office/car etc.

In this instance, some reasons could be:

1. Lack of awareness regarding parking sensor per se
2. Prioritizing regarding which accessory to use e.g. utility/entertainment
3. Parking/civic sense
4. Level of automation in all walks of life in a particular city/state
5. Etc

MODS: I am a scientist by profession and would certainly not wish to spread wrong information. Please feel free to close the thread without a hitch if it is leading to misinformation/disinformation.

[RX135]

It would largely be function of how much of parking space is available for your vehicle. When parking space comes at a premium and more often than not, you need to park your car in tight parking space, you would feel need of parking sensors.

It is natural that, Mumbai with probably highest density of people/vehicles, would have higher number cars of parking sensors.

Another lesser reason could be awareness about and availability of parking sensors as accessory.

@vivaprasad, I don't know why you felt so offended with the other post. As a scientist, you would know that the data has to be credible and reliable. While your data must be credible, but not sure reliable since you have not collected it over long period of time and different parts of the cities. There is nothing wrong if someone is pointing that out. You don't have to take it as personal offense.

[amitk26]

Vivaprasad Delhi has lots of open space and you dont actually need to squeeze in to 30 cm from bumper of next car so Parking sensor is not required.

Bangalore seems to be parking sensor capitol these days every other vehicle small or big have them and this is inline with the traffic density and lack of parking space here.

[vivprasad]

Thanks RX135. Certainly the observation wasn't taken over a long period of time, nor standardized. It was just an impression that I thought would be interesting to discuss. As it is, the parking space coming at a premium seems to be the dominant determinant, that you too consider to be the prime factor.