[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. Also AUTO EMERGENCY BRAKING, REAR CROSS TRAFFIC WARNING etc.

It could be a sedan or SUV.

Long drives (500 kms and above) will be frequent, so driving comfort is important.

Need your suggestions on existing and upcoming models.

Thanks in advance.

Subir Dutta

[GTO]

Would suggest investing more time & money with a driving school, then a beater car and improving her parking skills. It's very important to know how to park properly, especially in a country with congested cities like India.

You can still buy a car with auto-parking. But the ability to park without that assistance is crucial. What is your maximum budget?

Until she learns how to park, she can visit places with valet parking. All big malls & restaurants offer valet parking. Use a driver service like Drive-U at other times. Also check out these threads where members have installed auto-parking in their cars:

1. Self-Park in Jetta

2. Park Assist in Yeti

[Kosfactor]

I would recommend some driving classes , perhaps retaining the existing older vehicle for practice for a few months and then buy a new vehicle.

All these systems you are talking about are to assist the driver from a comfort perspective and not to augment their skills - which one needs to learn and practice.

[MysticMind]

Given Indian road and traffic conditions, often there are bound to be circumstances where one has to back up into tight spaces or make a U-Turn on a very narrow road during peak traffic. Driving skills are of utmost importance however smart the car is, so do consider driving classes. Alternatively, find a place where you can teach your wife to parallel park, make U-turns or 3/5 point turns. If done repeatedly, your wife should feel confident doing this herself.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by schubeir10

I want ADAS features especially AUTO PARKING as my wife is very poor in parking skills. Also AUTO EMERGENCY BRAKING, REAR CROSS TRAFFIC WARNING etc.

Not going to be much help, but cars with auto parking, atleast pre 2020 models, really need a proper parking space to be able to park which means a good number of parking spots in India would be unreadable for the systems.

Better solution would be to take lessons from a good driving school especially ones with instructors who had experience abroad as driving instructor or even good driving instructors who would teach to take care of the vehicle's extremities.

High time that parallel parking be made compulsory as part of driving test in our country.

[Geo_Ipe]

Originally Posted by schubeir10

I want ADAS features especially AUTO PARKING as my wife is very poor in parking skills. Also AUTO EMERGENCY BRAKING, REAR CROSS TRAFFIC WARNING etc.

What we need to understand is that all these gizmos are Drivier Aids - not a substitute for driving ability. Please don't get mesmerized by all the fancy abbreviations manufacturers use for marketing purposes. Indian driving conditions are far from ideal, where ADAS & other aids can perform.

How do you think your wife will react to all the chimes and whistles if she doesn't have the basic ability to drive!?

As advised by the forum, please invest time and effort in teaching your wife good driving skills! Do not go down the spoon feeding path - it seldom ends well!

[condor]

Practice, practice, practice. No substitute for practice. Once she gets this right, it will even help her feel confident when driving. Auto-parking will mean high end cars, and even then our conditions are so chaotic that even that may not work.

[yaleen]

One suggestion would be instead of official classes, there are some instructors who can provide coaching on your car, just so the driver gets confidence. We did this with my wife and few others in family and friends circle, who had learnt driving few years back, got the license but no confidence to drive alone. So this person used to take her for drive for an hour for 2 weeks, giving her tips, instructions just so she could become independent. Helped her with parking skills, taught her to change tyre (never done that since though) and so on. Since then, my wife has been driving on her own.

You may need to find someone who may do this, or if you already have a driver, ask to accompany your wife, try parking close to your house first to get confidence.

[Anki_252hp]

Auto park feature is more like a party trick rather than very practical thing, in most of the cases in India, you will find it very difficult to use the feature, as parking space are tight so it won't detect a tight space where doors can't be opened properly & where it detects, its not much difficult to park on those spots.

It will also be little scary to use the feature, specially for someone who is not very comfortable in parking, My 5 series comes with auto park but I could not fully trust it yet to use on tight spot, tried only to give demo to friends, nothing else.

BMW has very reliable auto park feature, I think even new X1 has it ( I remember seeing it on international reviews, not sure about India )

[IshaanIan]

I am sorry but if your wife cannot park then I shudder to think what other aspects of driving she is poor at I mean you know what a joke the licensing system is in India but that does not mean that we unleash a liability onto the city streets and highways. Please spend some time teaching her how to drive and then buy whatever the two of you feel is appropriate.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

1. What's your budget- Impossible to answer the question without this. If budget is not a constraint, i think S class is a good enough option .

Look for a used Endeavour if you like. Apart from that, I don't think any car under 20 l would be there.

[SinghBHP]

I believe any intelligent automatic systems (say parking assist here) need manual intervention and knowledge for proper operation. They are to support drivers and not replace them. In a country like India with high automobile density on roads it's better to practice the parking skill and use Auto park as a secondary resource only for support with blind spots.

[masterChief007]

I have a very decent and cheap solution, get a rear parking camera with all those proximity sensors. Then it is just like driving a video game car. If even with that she is not comfortable, then she will need to practice. Nothing better than being able to teach someone a new skill and boost their confidence, and so every weekend 1 hour parking classes by OP to the wife.

[FiatDiesel]

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. Also AUTO EMERGENCY BRAKING, REAR CROSS TRAFFIC WARNING etc.

While I strongly agree with other BHPians that driver should have skill to park properly however sometimes it’s stressful, I guess the only car which comes with this feature is Gloster, you may check it out.

[reignofchaos]

My car has park assist pilot and let me tell you how many times it has been used - a great big *zero*.

These systems are mostly gimmicks and never work as expected. Parking yourself is still the best option.

If your wife can't park properly, teach her. It was the same with my wife - she dinged the rear bumper and boot once but since then has learnt to park properly.