Well, she can but she's always hitting something. I used to get the car repaired but have now left it as it's pointless. Tried all methods to get her to be more careful but she tells me to stop being so materialistic!
Time for a car change soon. The type of cars we are looking for sometimes have a reversing camera as an option and I thought great, that will resolve the issue. Then it occurred to me it could possible make the problem worse. She'll more than likely never check around when reversing and only look at the screen. Can anyone who has a reversing camera please explain what it's like to live with? Are individuals likely to become more lazy and not be aware of out of screen view surroundings?
Yes yes I know you'll be critical of my wife's attitude but I know deep down she's gutted each time but won't really admit it. They reversing bumps are all very low speeds and fortunately not other cars.
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Can you get tow bars fitted to the corners? ;)
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Heh heh !
For what it's worth, I've found teaching others to park accurately using only the view through the wing/door mirrors really sharpens their skills. Position both mirrors so that you can just see down the sides of the vehicle and the ground just at the rearmost point of the car and practice practice practice. The penny drops eventually !
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Heh heh !
For what it's worth, I've found teaching others to park accurately using only the view through the wing/door mirrors really sharpens their skills. Position both mirrors so that you can just see down the sides of the vehicle and the ground just at the rearmost point of the car and practice practice practice. The penny drops eventually !
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>> Position both mirrors so that you can
>> just see down the sides of the vehicle and the ground just at the rearmost
>> point of the car and practice practice practice. The penny drops eventually !
Can you just repeat that Humph? The penny might drop eventually :)
I've been forced to use the wing mirrors as twisting around with a stiff back is a nightmare. I should have done it years ago, but I sort of didn't trust what the mirrors were telling me. You know, like those mirrors that tell women they're thin when they're not.
I used to open the door and hang out of the car.
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Well, it's only because I spent so many years with an estate car stuffed to the gunwhales with kit and could rarely see out of the back window so, as they say, necessity becomes the mother of invention, or something like that anyway !
Other thing I do, when I get a new car or have to drive one I'm not familiar with, is to just take a moment and sort of memorise how much car there is behind the driver's seat.
If you can keep that length in your mind's eye it really helps when parking with reduced visibility.
I can't begin to imagine how truck drivers do it. That's a real skill. Amazing really that people with that sort of spacial awareness will still pull out directly in front of a vehicle travelling at 30 -40 mph faster than them without apparently checking !
:-)
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>> I can't begin to imagine how truck drivers do it. That's a real skill. Amazing
>> really that people with that sort of spacial awareness will still pull out directly in
>> front of a vehicle travelling at 30 -40 mph faster than them without apparently checking
>> !
>>
>> :-)
>>
Its the difference between skilled reversing and scattering the traffic. :-)
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It could just be that the lady's not for turning...
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I have a camera.
I don't use it for reversing so much as checking how close I am as I get there. I can't imagine trying to reverse just looking at the screen.
Also, it gets gradually obscured by muck.
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Some people are not natural drivers and reversing is a real challenge for them, they can learn and improve but they have to want to...helps if the cost is their own to bear but thats not going to happen in this case unless you run two cars, hers bought by and costed by her.
Thats probably sounds a bit extreme but i would have gone down that road by now to be honest.
Otherwise it would help if the car was nice to see out of, squarish and with a high proportion of windows to bodywork.
Squarish shape helps too and a bit of medium height doesn't go amiss, sort of Forester shape.
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On other thing is your present car an automated manual, i ask because gently controlled manouevering doesn't compute for the on/off switch clutch control.
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Humph, regarding that last paragraph. I have only two things to say to you..... and they both bounce. ;-)
OP; my sympathies. A former partner had exactly the same issues with reversing although she was almost equally as lethal going forwards.
I once moved her car over about a foot in the driveway in order to get my motorbike past it. The next time she got in the car and reversed out of the drive, instead of checking the proximity of the fence on the nearside she put full lock on and ripped the nearside mirror off its mount. This of course was my fault since I'd moved the car. I grudgingly paid out to replace it, but did point out that she ought to be more careful. A few months later she did the same thing again and this time I stood my ground and insisted that if a car hits a stationary object then it is the driver's fault. This time I avoided being out of pocket but still ended up with the hassle of changing the mirror.
Some people just never learn, and I agree with gb that sometimes the only way to get the message across is to hit them in their pockets.
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Agree Manatee - after a journey in the wet the muck/water obscures the lens so much that they are useless. They also have such a wide angle view (much wider than a 28 mm lens on a photo camera - maybe equiv of about 14 mm????) that detail is very difficult to see. Quite useful for "lining-up" a parking space using the green, orange and red lines on the screen, but for close quarters parking the mirrors are much better - and the "beeper" parking aids are better for locating your back end (?!). AIMHO of course!
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>> Tried all methods to get her to be more careful but she tells me to stop being so materialistic!
How about scratching or denting any of her white goods in the kitchen and then tell her to stop being so materialistic when she has a go at you.
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"her white goods in the kitchen"
Yep that will help no end :-)
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"*her* white goods"? I could get beaten for that phrase alone.
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Our Yarises have reversing cameras. They make a car 3 ft behind you look about 20 ft away.
I use the mirrors !
My own car is so old it has a magic lantern.......I have to stop reversing and take the glass plates to Timothy Whites for developing before moving again !
Only joking.............................I go to Boots !
Ted
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I taught SIL to use her mirrors and GO SLOWLY when reversing.
Damned if I can do the the same for SWMBO.
SWMBO recently came home with N/S door mirror broken - she hadn't noticed. Shows how much she uses it!
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Buy a 20yo Defender 90 and use cable ties to attach large squeaky dog toys to each corner.
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Our car has poor rear vision owing to its hunched stance. The door mirrors are useful for not hitting buildings or other cars, and the car squeaks with increasing urgency when it approaches anything in reverse. When it becomes one continuous squeal you'd better stop pronto.
Nothing's failsafe though. You can still graunch or dinge the rear quarters and I've done it, and so has herself.
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I have a reversing camera, but I'm too involved in looking for avoiding things around me generally than looking at the screen. The reversing sensors are of more far benefit than the camera. In fact it wouldn't bother me if I didn't have the camera.
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Accept the Spanish attitude - bumpers are for bumping! (Or try and find her an old Lada Riva 1200 - the bumpers on that are seriously tough and more like RSJs!)
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How do people who can't reverse manage to pass the driving test?
In my day we had to reverse around a corner keeping 18" from the kerb, and do a 3-point turn without letting the wheels touch the kerb.
My instructor gave me lots of practice doing parallel parking, although it was not I think in the test.
Yet now I often meet people on our narrow lanes who can't position the car within 6 feet of the edge, and if forced to reverse just stop vaguely in the middle and let me do the negotiating round the passing place.
I admit though I have never learned to use mirrors. It's too easy just to swivel round in the seat and steer one-handed looking out through the rear windscreen. It's best not to go more than about 20 mph though because rear-wheel steering is a bit over-reactive.
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>> How do people who can't reverse manage to pass the driving test?
>>
We had a woman at work who used to get one of the men to reverse her car out of the parking slot in the company car park and get it into free space and pointing in the right direction for going forward until she reached the road.
>> In my day we had to reverse around a corner keeping 18" from the kerb,
>> and do a 3-point turn without letting the wheels touch the kerb.
Me too, and that was without having power assisted steering.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 08:13
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As ever, I'll be different. I use the screen almost exclusively, only really using the mirrors for a check before starting the manoeuvre. And a quick glance over my shoulders.
But I should add that if I'm using the self park (I use it to park at work every day but only occasionally in the street), the car insists on going so slowly I'd be hard pushed to damage anything if I hit it.
I know, I'm a bad person.
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I hired a Qashqi (spelling?) in Germany a couple of years ago that had a reversing camera. Was not that intuitive to use and proved utterly useless (or is it me?) when I reversed into a snow-bank that appeared completely invisible on the screen.
Parking sensors on the other hand are great, preferably front and rear. It is just a case of remembering to check if they are fitted when I get a courtesy / hire car. Reversed straight into a low-set pot plant that the BMW dealer when going home in a VW after dropping off my BM. Ooops.
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I'd have parking sensors fitted to my Subaru Forester as my wife can't go backwards (that could have been worded better!)
To hell with the cost (£220) but they have to remove the rear bumper, and I'm not having that palaver thanks.
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>> and do a 3-point turn without letting the wheels touch the kerb.
That's a "turn in the road". The number of points you get away with depends on the width of the road, the only important bit is not touching the kerbs. My instructor drilled that into me and used to make a habit of getting me to perform umpty-something point turns in roads that were all of 2' wider than the car was long.
Worth doing, come the test I had to do it on something that the word "boulevard" could be used to describe. Doing that in three neat moves was a doddle.
I also found out why Metros were so popular with driving schools. When reversing around a corner, keeping the kerb in the rearmost lower corner of the nearside rear window of a Metro gets it to go around exactly 18" away from the thing. Felt like cheating at the time......
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>> I also found out why Metros were so popular with driving schools. When reversing around
>> a corner, keeping the kerb in the rearmost lower corner of the nearside rear window
>> of a Metro gets it to go around exactly 18" away from the thing. Felt
>> like cheating at the time......
>>
My instructor had a little nick cut into the rubber seal on the rear screen for just this purpose.
Last edited by: neiltoo on Fri 21 Jun 13 at 15:27
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...keeping the kerb in the rearmost lower corner of the nearside rear window of a Metro gets it to go around exactly 18" away...
The Mk 3.5 Escort (not so popular among driving schools - odd given how many use Focuses today - although mine used them) was similarly easy to place; all those straight lines and sharp angles. In fact, remembering how wieldy I'd found it in Birmingham traffic was a big factor in my decision to buy one as a first car.
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The Mk1 Escort (that I passed my test in) needed a small piece of tape on the rear window rubber.
I loved that Escort.
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The fleet Prius has a reversing camera. Marvellous it is too.
It has a fisheye lens, so it actually gives a better peripheral view than turning round and looking back does, as its view is not obscured by the various bits of the car.
Yes, the wide angle does make things look further away, but you soon learn to adjust and also you can actually see the rear bumper in the pic. It's easy to reverse up to something with millimetric accuracy.
Also, it draws lines on the screen. Yellow lines are which way the car's going, green lines are where it'll go if you straighten the steering(!) At the bottom of the screen are a yellow and red line. Lining up the wall / whatever to the rear on the yellow one means you have loading room between it and whatever's there. Lining up on the red means the tailgate will open without hitting whatever's behind.
Pretty much idiot proof once you get the hang of it. If you're really useless, you can always punch the appropriate button and let it park itself. That last function I find a bit scary, as it'll happily put the corners of the vehicle within millimetres of objects while doing so. You'd swear it was going to hit things, even though it never actually does.....
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>> The fleet Prius has a reversing camera.
>>
>> Pretty much idiot proof once you get the hang of it.
>>
Just like mirrors then. :-)
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Aircraft pilots can't go backward either :-)
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I have seen a (big) military transport aircraft do a three point turn on the runway at RAF St Athan. It was a long time ago, propeller driven. I have also seen aircraft reversing under their own power on the ground.
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I have also seen aircraft reversing under their own power on the ground.
yep the C-17 can do so, handy for a tight spot.
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We now have a Ford C Max with 'park assist' - so it will reverse park the car for you. I think it was £625 and it's a very impressive bit of kit. Includes a display on the dash board of information from the front and rear sensors, plus audio warnings.
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>> We now have a Ford C Max with 'park assist' - so it will reverse
>> park the car for you.
My Focus has Active Park Assist as standard but as far as I can see from the Owners Manual it will only "parallel park" the car in reverse between two already parked vehicles. And it won't park the car any nearer to the side of the road than the two already parked vehicles. It won't reverse park it into a slot in a car park, or reverse park it at the side of the road if there aren't two vehicles already parked there, or in fact reverse park it in any other situation. I so very rarely park on the road anyway that I doubt whether I will ever need to even try out the system. I thought the front proximity sensors of the system might serve a similar purpose to rear proximity sensors, but they're only on the two front corners and not actually at the front so they don't activate when just travelling forward in a normal situation.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Sat 22 Jun 13 at 06:58
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>> >but
>> they're only on the two front corners and not actually at the front so they
>> don't activate when just travelling forward in a normal situation.
>>
That sounds like a good reason for having a car with a bonnet you can see, so that you know where the front of the car is. If you can see the corner of the bonnet, and know that the bumper is 6" beyond that, then you can't drive into things.
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We have four sensors across the front of the C Max. Yes, the automatic parking, just tells you if a space is big enough to park in then parallel parks for you, but we have to park on the road in our local town most days. We find the sensors plus display very comprehensive in all other situations, so are very pleased with this option and feel it was very good value for money compared to what some brands want for just rear sensors when you're 'spec ing' a new vehicle.
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>> We have four sensors across the front of the C Max.
Are they part of the Active Park Assist? Are they truly at the front, or are they (like my Focus) at the front corners?
Last edited by: L'escargot on Sat 22 Jun 13 at 09:22
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There are six sensors on the front end of the car - two either side of the front number plate, then two on each front corner, one pointing frontwards and one pointing sidewards
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>> There are six sensors on the front end of the car - two either side
>> of the front number plate, then two on each front corner, one pointing frontwards and
>> one pointing sidewards
>>
That's eight!
;-)
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>> There are six sensors on the front end of the car - two either side
>> of the front number plate, then two on each front corner, one pointing frontwards and
>> one pointing sidewards
>>
I've found the two forward facing sensors, one either side of the number plate. You have to look closely to see them because they're the same colour (glossy black) as the grille/panel onto which the number plate is mounted. All I've got to do now is find out how they work. I guess you have to switch on the Active Park Assist.
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>> I guess you have to switch on the Active
>> Park Assist.
>>
I've just read the Owners Manual and it's a bit vague and ambiguous on the subject.
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When I read the title of this thread I glanced at the author expecting it to be BBD...
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>> I've just read the Owners Manual and it's a bit vague and ambiguous on the
>> subject.
Your Owners Manual must be the most well thumbed manual in the UK. Do you take it to bed with you?
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>> Your Owners Manual must be the most well thumbed manual in the UK. Do you
>> take it to bed with you?
>>
I read the online/pdf version. It's much easier to navigate than the paper version.
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My wife can't go backwards - Runfer D'Hills
