It's the little things...Park assist
 

I've had my ML550 for a few weeks now...Today was my first opportunity to use Park assist with my wife in the car.

They say that everybody has a superpower. My wife's superpower is her parallel parking ability! My wife can throw any vehicle into any space on the first try and land within 10" of the curb. She often asks if I need help parking, or if I'd just rather let her park the car for me. I mean I'm not BAD at it, but she is just a ridiculously good at parking. The teasing she gives me definitely gets in my head, and she is buoyed by it, she keeps getting better at it the more confident she becomes.

So today when I found a space on the street, I pulled up, threw the car in reverse and hit "ok" to activate parking assist. I pretended to turn the wheel as I backed into the space, without hesitation I backed in, put the car in drive and straightened it out. The car was about 2" from the curb.

She opened the door..."wow, you've been practicing!"...I got out walked around to the pass side and she's standing there looking at the car "I can't believe it, first try, you're right at the curb...that's um...pretty good". I walked past her "the king is dead...long live the king". It'll probably be six months before she figures out the car parks itself.

Funny story, love it

Ha, that will be a shocker when she finds out. Her "superpower" trumped by a machine! I live in the country and have not had to parallel park in fifteen or twenty years. The last thing I would ever order would be the park assist, however, it is certainly worth its weight in gold in the big city!

Let us know how your wife reacts when she finds out. And don't forget, to prove you are better than she is you can bet her all sorts of stuff in the meantime to get out of honey-dos and make your life easier. When she finds out just lie and tell her you did not even know it had this feature either and your parking expertise was do to practice and luck. Play it right and you can not loose!!!

that's not going to work...she already smells a rat. she was trying to work it out while we were standing there. If I rip off another high-speed-one-shot-perfect-parking-job, she'll launch a congressional investigation.

It's almost cruel...last night we pulled up in front of a restaurant...two SUV's on either side, the one to the rear was well over the line into the empty space. I drove slowly past with the signal on...and the Park assist indicator came on.
My wife announced "you'll never fit in that space, it's too small". I put it in reverse and hit "ok", pretended to turn the wheel and five seconds later was 2" from the curb.
"I'm sorry honey, you were saying?"
she climbed out, shook her head..."you really ARE getting pretty good at this".

I did discover an error with park assist that is going to end my little prank. If the sensors are covered with rain or dirt park assists doesn't work...the car shudders and bucks and park assist turns off. that's going to be embarassing...but I can always get out and let her park it.

We bought our 2012 ML350 last week, and I discovered after a few days of reading the manual and testing things, that it had park assist. The previous owner said he did not have it. Bonus!


I told my wife about it immediately - partly because I was pretty happy to have made the discovery, and partly because she does not have the parking superpower: if she scratched the rims because she did not use park assist, then the joke would have been on me.

ha, my wife finds rash on her E350 wheels and she's all over my case.

I have 2013 ml350. i constantly use park assist. the bad news is the computer miscalculate the space twice and cost me scratch on rim and tires. be mindful!

I had my first miscalculation the other day...out of ten attempts I think. I have the stock 19's on with AS tires so no curb rash. I won't be so aggressive in the future.
interesting point though.

It's always wise to let the wife have a win whenever you can. :y
Happy wife, happy life.
You just have to be secure enough to live with the truth.
She just parks better than you! :D

I came clean at a dinner party a couple of weeks ago...when I told other guests "the car is completely loaded...it even has a button you press and it parallel parks itself automatically"...
she banged her hands on the counter, jumped up and said "I knew it!! I knew you couldn't have improved that much overnight! you suck!"

so yeah, I can live with the truth. yesterday park assist didn't come on for a drivers-side parallel parking spot...I hit the curb. "not so easy without the car doing it for you?"