Proximity Alarms in Devon lanes

[mikebore]

I have just come back from a holiday in Devon which involved a lot of single track lanes with very high hedgerows, and doing long reverses when meeting another car.

Before going I was expecting the proximity sensors to be a real pain, and that I would switch them off.

in fact I found the opposite. They were very useful!

Travelling forwards they would only occasionally sound, but their real benefit was doing the long reverses.

Reversing a few hundred yards with the mirrors I cannot stay sufficiently central to avoid the sensors beeping, but realised that as long as I heard beeping I was OK. If the beeping turned continuous it was a very useful alert that I was too near one side.

I have been to the same place in Devon with other cars and was very glad of the proximity sensors.

[ColinS]

I remember a Devon holiday some 30 years ago ( no sensors then  ).  My Son, who was around 6 or 7 at the time, couldn't believe how may people knew me.  They kept putting their hands up to me for giving way you see 

But in answer to your post. I totally agree, they are really useful.

[andruec]

My family has a joke about Devon lanes. We refer to any single track road as 'the main road to Drewstaington'. That's because we were out sightseeing one time (Castle Drogo possibly) and we ended up heading that way and saw a sign that said it was the main road. It turned out to be a mostly single track road with grass growing up the middle

We lived in Exeter for over a decade around the early 80s so saw quite a bit of the countryside. Lovely place.

[ColinB]

I've not had the pleasure of the Devon lanes problem in the Jazz yet, but I can see how the sensors could help there.

But for normal parallel parking I find them unhelpfully over-sensitive. I live in a narrow street of terraced houses, and parking spaces tend to be cosy. The sensors can start sounding when you position yourself close alongside a parked car prior to reversing into the space, and then if the space is tight you can have both front and rear beepers going simultaneously. So then you have to turn them off, in the very situation when they ought to be most useful. I've asked, but apparently it's not possible to adjust the sensitivity. This is the first car I've had with parking sensors, so I don't know if other cars are like this or if this is just a Jazz thing.

[guest1372]

But for normal parallel parking I find them unhelpfully over-sensitive. I live in a narrow street of terraced houses, and parking spaces tend to be cosy.

Like me when in Yorkshire, but years of practice beats bleepers every day.  Hire cars / friends cars go to steady tone on the front when doing the swing out the nose part way too early and 50cm or so on the back when I'd want it to be more like 10cm.
--
TG

[John Ratsey]

I've found that in country lanes with hedgerows the sensors go mad when pulling to the side for passing another vehicle so they get turned off as we can't stand the noise. The lane departure warning gets turned off for the same reason because some of those lanes have a white line or two.

And I completely agree with the above comments about the over-sensitivity. A slight beep at 50cm gives some advance warning but the full beep needs to be at 10cm or 15cm and not 40cm (16"). I can guess where the corners are to within 16" but want to know exactly how much clearance I have when getting into or out of a tight space and, for that, the sensors are useless. Good idea but poorly implemented, possibly because a more precise system would need more sensors (10cm from the sensor could mean about to chunch a bit of body away from the sensors).