jmbaker3

Anyone think this is a waste of money.? I know with the tall back end it might be helpful. I know it is with my Excursion, but with the camera does it really help?

samkimg

only used it once, I bought it because I travel to SF and you have to park QUICKLY there or get surrounded so that you can't park ... I hope this will help me to park that much faster.

Diesel Benz

Quite recently a very experienced driver got a scratch to the rear bumper strip, from a hidden metal can. One may claim that the rear camera would have shown the object but if the driver keeps watching the rear view camera, then a metal can would scratch the front when you turn. The most experienced driver faces a bad day and at that single moment Parktronic has saved it's cost. The other days it gives more relaxed driving (not only parking) as a bonus.

I have both in my 221 and 95% of time trust on Parktronic only, sometimes have a look at the camera to for confirmation. We do park on tight places although nothing like old city centres of Central European towns.

Parktronic would be far further top on my preference list than the rear view camera. Actually Parktronic is pretty much at the top of my options list (except that on many models it is standard, even on our 204 it was standard).

Samkimg, how do you know that you've only used parktronic once? After all it activates every time you drive the car slowly, front always, rear when reversing. I would claim you have used it a lot but always detected "there are no objects to worry about".

K-A

Yup, that was me!

If I bought my car New, no doubt, 100%, Parktronic would be at the top of my Options List.

My S500, even with its hefty size, was a BREEZE to park, my E, not so much. I'm one of those guys who tries to park "perfectly", i.e far away from the other car/s, pushed in enough to not have my rear sticking out, and it's a hassle, and I've banged up my rear a couple times now.

Especially with a new M-B, where they did away with the impact strips, I wouldn't hesitate. If I got that little scratch on a 212, I'd have to send my car to a Body Shop, and have the whole bumper repainted. Not to mention, the front end is also sans impact strips, and the grille sits low and flat, so if you hit something, the grille might go first.

I had to buy a new impact strip, which cost a couple hundred bucks basically, very happy considering what would have been had I not had the strips, however still, Parktronic would have saved from the problem altogether.

I've never used a rear view Camera yet personally, but I'd take Parktronic over it anyday (if they don't come together), the Camera would just be a bonus for me.

jmbaker3

I thought the camera was standard.

Diesel Benz

Cannot be even in the US. Isn't the rear view camera only available with Comand (and the bigger display) and I believe not even Comand is standard in the US (not even in the US).

lyjw88

Partronic is so much better than the rear view camera.
I have PDC (parktronic equivlant) in my 335i, and rear view camera in my 212 and I like PDC better.

shaffras

I have the rear view camera and park tronic and would not give up either.

silberrosa

COMAND and the 7" screen is thankfully standard on the US models. Navigation is an option. On ECE models, the COMAND screen is a very expensive upgrade but required if you want the rear view camera. Parktronic is nice in combination with the camera and well worth the money.

mg-E550

Are you referring to the electronic warnings you get - or the actual parking guidance given on how to turn the wheel. I use parktronic all the time when parking but haven't had a chance to use the parallel parking guidance system yet.

Diesel Benz

Thanks for clarifying this, my mistake, I guess I remember going through the "build your own car" at MBUSA web site and it must have been navigation as an option then. In Europe I don't think we have Comand without navigation but we have Audio 50 APS and and Audio 20.

But how is it with the rear view camera, it could then be standard but the presence of Comand does not automatically mean it would, unless MBUSA decided so.

Diesel Benz

Yes, I did mean Parktronic only for the warning system, not the actual parking guidance. Even if I do a lot parallel parking and reverse parking, I hardly use any other assistance except the Parktronic proximity warning feature. The Parking Assist feature has not been useful for myself but it could just be because I've been too lazy to learn how to use it properly.

ipp

The parking assist is working surprisingly well, I'm just wondering how it knows how close I'm to the curb? Is it just based on the car parked in front of the lot? Then it would be bad if the car in front of you is a Smart or similar.

Diesel Benz

A very interesting question. One would assume it being easier to measure accurately the car in front of the parking space but as you say, this measurement would fail in the case of narrow cars or perhaps motorbikes.

I had a look at the functional description and it does not explain this explicitly but there is a figure illustrating Parking Assist measurements through out the 15 metre measurement memory range and the figure shows the sensor (front side-most sensor) detecting the car behind and the car in front of the parking slot but also a line of measurements from the curb. I conclude that the system actually detects the curb.

Since you are an expert user, perhaps you might test it at a big parking lot where you can simulate reverse parking in a case where no curb exists. Perhaps the system isn't even built for such a scenario, would there be a realistic case where no curb exists (just trying to figure out if the interpretation from the functional description could be correct, I'm sure MB has considered all practical use cases as far as possible)?

E550

I have become very used to the parktronic feature - this is a must.