[kadanaJ]

A lot of assumptions being made about the wife's driving skills based on that she's not great at parking.

Judging nearby objects when parking can be tricky for anyone. Having an aid helps a lot. One of my cars has a reverse camera. It makes parking so much easier.

My suggestion would be to leave aside the ADAS and auto-park features. They're a bit hit & miss in India anyways.

Rather get something with a 360° camera. As long as one can see what's around, parking should be a breeze.

If that also does not help, just hire a full-time driver for her needs.

[VellVector]

Originally Posted by schubeir10

I want ADAS features especially AUTO PARKING as my wife is very poor in parking skills.

Would suggest that you don't base a purchase decision solely on this feature. I've owned a car with auto-park in India for the last 9 years. Three cars in my garage now have it.

I could probably count on one hand the number of times we have used it and it actually worked in our conditions. In the real world this is more of a gimmick.

[akshay81]

My Superb has the park assist but the same is not very reliable for most of the times (not that it crashes but it just refuses to work in tight parking spaces). Better to rely on one's own judgement.

[sarfraz1997]

I’ve retrofitted PLA 3.0, VAG’s latest iteration of auto park, on my Skoda Octavia, it needs near perfect conditions to be able to accurately work in a real time setting. It is difficult to rely on it on a regular basis to be able to safely drive around. There’s no guarantee that any car you purchase will be able to park even in 70% of the spaces.

With that being said, A car with parking sensors covering all sides is easier to park than a car with camera’s covering all sides. This is simply because the sensors have an effective way of communicating to the driver that there’s some object by making a beep based on the distance to object, unlike a camera which needs driver’s attention on the screen.

[cryptarchy]

I would advise you to be patient with her. Parking is one of the toughest if not toughest part of learning to drive. It takes time and regular practice. Start with bigger parking spaces and slowly transition to smaller parking spaces. It requires a critical skill to judge the corners of a car that is also essential in driving on narrow roads. On our congested roads it is a critical skill to have.

[jono213]

Originally Posted by schubeir10

Hi Team,
I am planning to buy a new car, preferably a SUV.
I want ADAS features especially AUTO PARKING as my wife is very poor in parking skills.
Subir Dutta

The term SUV and bad parking skills are a recipe for disaster , the only car that would fit your criteria, would be something like an endeavour, which isn't even on sale. Parking in India requires skill and precision and most of the time, these systems are not reliable.
My advice like everyone else on this thread would be to invest in proper training, rather than base a purchase solely off 1 criteria.

[jinojohnt]

Everybody talks about training for proper parking. But the reality is that such training centers are almost non-existent in India. First you need to learn to park, then you need to teach your spouse on a beater car. How many of us are confident to park in spaces with just 2 inches tolerance? I am not

[baby_driver999]

Honestly the best option would be to ask her to learn how to park, as many here have already mentioned.

The next best thing you can do is to buy a car with rear parking cameras or 360-degree cameras. Even the S-Presso we own has this.

Patience is key when it comes to learning, especially as we get older.

[wocanak]

Surprised that no one has mentioned about size of the car, if you are okay with it, a smaller sized car will be more easy to park and is more likely to fit in available slot. There are many options in the 4m or smaller size across a wide price range.

Was very noticeable for me with Nexon, after switching from ~4.3m Fiesta and S-Cross for many years. Will have one tight fit or even give up a slot once a month, but have not faced that with the Nexon. Basically majority of the cars parked in city roads are smaller cars and the probability of slot vacated by a small car is much higher.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

How many of us are confident to park in spaces with just 2 inches tolerance? I am not

Well said! All of us think we're great drivers and are quick to pass judgement on others, but none of us is as good as we think we are!

After more than 20 years of driving, I still take some time to parallel park properly, especially in the kind of tight spots we find in all our cities. Once when I found very tight spot flanked with two pillars in the basement parking of a mall, I was so happy, I actually spent more than an hour getting in and out repeatedly, just to get more practice and get better at it. Rare to get such space and a situation without someone honking behind you to hurry you up!

As such, any assistance in the form of driver aids would be great. I've never driven a car with such aids, but going by the responses it seems that they don't work well in the kind of tight parking situation we have here? Is that correct?

[silverado]

Originally Posted by schubeir10

Hi Team,

as my wife is very poor in parking skills.

Parking is challenging no doubt, but she has to understand that Auto parking is not going to get her a parking slot everywhere in india. So as mentioned by everyone unless she herself takes the pain to learn parking , she is going to find it tough to park even with assist.

I was also skeptical about my wife's driving but today after 4 months i can confidently say she can drive any car with ease.

My Gen 1 Nano ( non-ps ) is the one she is using as a daily driver!
My simple advice is : Do not pamper her with tech, but give her your own time and make her a better driver.
In fact i would go on and advise you to teach her parking using only mirrors.

Dude you are a bhpian, so take up this challenge. Good luck

[anandhsub]

Camera based assists are a pain to use for a newbie driver as they alter the viewing angles and you will never get comfortable with the size of the vehicle.

The best is to install parking sensors ( where the frequency of the beep increases as you get closer and it also shows which sensor is detecting an obstacle) all around so that you are still mainly dependent on the mirrors to judge the clearance while at the same time the blind spots are handled by the sensors and they actually help you become a better driver as with time you get to understand the size of the car.

[rGT]

As many others have already stated, get her to learn the necessary skills. To be able to park a car properly is an acquired (and a very crucial) skill for a driver, one that a lot of road-users in India lack.

Parking a car doesn't only include occupying a vacant space, but it also involves proper judgement of the surroundings, traffic flow, etc. Indian traffic conditions are anyway chaotic, and most Indian drivers are infamously impatient. But, honestly, these are perfect conditions to hone a driver's parking skills, as they'll reveal the driver's composure while maneuvering through them.

Self-parking features are, at the end of the day, handled by electronics, which can go kaput at any given moment of time. Then, it's solely upon the driver, and his/her skills to do the needful. So, it is advisable for your wife to learn the parking skills first.

[AnupamRoy]

Originally Posted by sarfraz1997

I’ve retrofitted PLA 3.0, VAG’s latest iteration of auto park, on my Skoda Octavia

Off topic, so my apologies in advance, but did you get a Škoda workshop to do the mod for you? I've been contemplating installing a 360° camera on my Octavia for a while now, but not confident enough to give the car to any FNG for this, esp since the Octy is under (extended) warranty until 2025. The dealer I bought it from just said it isn't possible to fit one and washed their hands off it, so that was that. I'd also prefer not having to drill holes into the car's body, or cut any wires to install any mods (Would rather live with the current parking sensors than have any of that), which is why I still haven't been able to figure out if the 360° cam is really out of the picture for me. Any help/advice much appreciated.

[Cresterk]

The discontinued ford endeavour is the first car that comes to mind when you say auto parking. It was a semi-auto system that only controlled steering but it got the job done.

The cars with full auto parking are : All the new gen Mercs in India, including the entry level models like GLA, have full auto parking including accelerator + brake and steering control. Don't even need to change between reverse and forward. You can see it in action here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA9a1fwC47w

The volvos have had auto parking for a while now. However, I have never used the system so I won't comment.


Do note: Our country has poorly marked roads, bad parking discipline with cars parked haphazardly and even rocks and infrastructure protruding into a parking space that these systems would miss. These features are mostly still party tricks rather than something you can rely on in India.

The best option is to get a car with 360 degree cameras and adaptive guidelines to make it easier to park properly. Teach her to park herself with those assists at least.