Parking a car when you can't see the bonnet?

hewhoisnotintheknow

dizziblonde wrote: »

I turn the headlights on - I also use that if I want to make sure the front corner's clear of something before I move away if you get what I mean.

Or you could use the technique my mum used to use to make sure the back end of the car was in the garage - roll forward till you hit the front wall... she went through about 30 front number plates till we hung a tennis ball from the garage roof and told her to go forward till it was touching her windscreen.

simple common sense

dizziblonde

Common sense and my mother don't always belong in the same sentence where motoring's concerned. She's been known to go into the garage and complain she can't get the lid on the car open and her technique for changing the wheel on a tyre goes along the lines of "wear a short skirt and cry".

nullogik

I find that most modern cars are designed in such a way that you can't see the edges of the bonnet. Thankfully I drive an old square Mercedes so I can see all four corners of the car easily!

One tip is to perhaps try parking with your headlamps on, and the use the reflection from the car in front when you are parking up to judge how close you are to them.

Any

My husband had a reverse parking sensors on his Audi and forgot to tell me when they were broken... So I am reversing, reversing, stepped on the brake and thought - I seem to be really close to that car behind me, cannot even see a shine from my brake light - so I got out and I was about 1/2 inch from the car behind me!!
Since I ignore parking sensors... :-)

But really, it is just a practice.

anewman

I look from my normal driving position and look at the position of the wing mirror in relation to the imaginary line in front I am trying to get to. I assume as most cars have mirrors this will work for all cars

ktuludays

have i stumbled into some parallel universe where this is considered a serious problem?

have any of you actually passed your driving tests?

nullogik

ktuludays wrote: »

have i stumbled into some parallel universe where this is considered a serious problem?

have any of you actually passed your driving tests?

Whats that got to do with anything? Have you taken a driving test lately?? I did mine 3 years ago, and I can assure you that when taking the test the instructor picked a very large space in a very quiet street and tested my parking that way. I'd think most people would be capable of doing this fairly easily.

Of course in reality most parking spaces aren't three cars long and aren't always in quiet cul-de-sacs.

Two very different unrelated situations.

BillScarab

The best car to park is a Land Rover Defender or Series. Nice and square so there's no problem seeing the ends and if you hit anything you won't damage your car. Of course you might destroy whatever you hit!

It's not just modern cars that you can't see the extremities though. In my youth I had a couple of Capris, you couldn't see wither end of them. The seat was so low all you could see of the bonnet was the bulge. You just have to learn where the extremities are.