Various Parking Aids Explained

Nowadays parking spaces are hard to find and when you do spot one your car could be a tight fit as they are getting progressively smaller.

Although there are small cars about, most vehicles are now wider and longer and they have also become safer.  Because of safety strengthening pillars have been included in the body of the car and these limit visibility.

Because reversing aids are not really expensive if you fit the basic one, it is hardly surprising that they have become popular with safety conscious drivers.

There are several kinds of safeguards; you could have front and rear cameras fitted or automatic parking aids.  Of course, the latter two will be more expensive, but if you want to protect both your car and people outside, they have got to be worth it.

The cheapest form of parking aid is the ultrasonic one and if yours was factory fitted, it is very likely that you would have one of these.  They bounce sound waves of objects and you will hear a beeping sound in the car.

Depending on how far away the object is the beeping will tell you roughly how far and the sound will get increasingly urgent when you get very near.  The trouble with this system is that it can miss small objects.  It is also possible that if you go up a ramp the sensors are also activated.

Furthermore, to fit these to the bumpers requires you to drill holes to feed wires through to the inside of the car.

If you are a fitness fanatic and you often strap bicycles on the rear or the car, or tow a caravan you may want to have electro-magnetic parking sensors fitted.  They work by emitting an electro-magnetic field and anything that comes within it will trigger a response from the parking aids.

Caravans, tow bars and bicycle racks do not affect the efficiency of this type of sensor.  You would be wise to have them fitted after you have taken possession of your car as factory fitted systems are far more expensive.