jbee

What range are you guys (gals) getting? Mine seems not to detect front objects until they are 1 or 2 feet in front of me.

It can't see a pile of sand, or my garage door.

I cleaned the sensors, but to no avail.

Is it time for a service trip?

lsdreem

thats normal. Its not supposed to detect things 5 feet away or anything

Jason B

This sounds like the same as the w221.

Kratos-TM

Yep, my 221 is the same.

Jason B

That's scary. I was pulling into a parking space the other day that had a low curb in front of it, and the parking sensors showed nothing. When I got out and looked, the lower front bumper was the thickenss of a sheet of paper away from hitting the curb! It doesn't detect things that low either, which you really need to be careful, especially with the amg package.

jbee

The range shown in the manual is way off.....and yes, it doesn't detect low curbs which I learned the hard way....but at least the manual warns of that.

Diesel Benz

If it was set to detect low curbs, the system would be useless because it would give useless warning whenever you park against "a normal curb" (and then misses real objects). The idea must be that curbs are built low enough for normal cars. Parktronic anyway cannot make three dimensional measurements.

How do other brands behave in this respect?

BenzV12

This is why you need 360 view cam

XxLHCxX

I personally like how the BMW Parking Sensors work better... When you turn them on or go into reverse, it starts beeping when an obstacle is within 5 feet away and slowly beeps faster and faster until you just hear a long tone, then you know it only has 1 foot before it hits something... I wasn't use to the benz one when it only beeps within 1 foot or so...

Jason B

I had a rear camera standard on an early 2000 Infiniti, lol. Mercedes takes "forever" before they add any of these cool type items. Honda accord has an awesome front camera for when you signal that shows on the nav screen, works great. This has been around for a while. Mercedes doesn't add anything cool like that until they decide they can't make a better version on their own, then they conform and add what everyone did, just years later. Also, a rear camera is still optional for a bmw 7 series. Crazy.

And yes, I'm very impressed with the new car, they just waited too long to add all those goodies

jbee

I never thought of that. It might earn the camera a button on my favorites (I used most of them as a speed dial though). I agree with the posters that follow...the BMW method is what I would have expected.

Heck, my 2005 LS430 did that.

Wolfman

I have the 5 camera setup in our BMW but it has a major flaw versus the MB; it only turns on when in reverse.
Any curb you approach or driving into the garage, the front sensors never activate even if you hit something.
For the front sensors to activate you must actually press a button next to the shift lever.
The reason I assume is that the park sensor only shows on the main nav screen rather than separate indicators.
Our car is lowered and I have hit a curb more than once because I didn't think of pressing the button.

BMW and MB sensors have the same detection field btw, most likely they are from the same vendor, like Bosch...

XxLHCxX

To be honest, I prefer the BMW setup. I don't want the sensors to always be on at slow speeds. For example, I was test driving the S Class when it was raining and it was constantly beeping when I came to a stop or was in very slow traffic. I much prefer having the sensors turn on when I am in reverse or press a button on the dash (as this is when it is useful, backing up). When you are parking and putting the nose of the car in first, you can pretty much approximate the distance you still have in front of you. Then if you need to really make sure and get close in certain situations, then you can turn the sensors on if you wish.

I found that the Benz sensors really only beep once it get SUPER close to the point that I don't think of them as useful at all. Just my opinion.

BadMojo

Am I missing something but do people here not find the visual representation (on the instrument cluster and in an LED strip above the rear windshield) useful? I've driven vehicles with the accelerated beeping and I just found it to be annoying. It's almost like the aural version of the Chinese water torture technique. With the LED indicator, it doesn't "nag" at you as much until you start getting to close, where you should really stop when you hear the beeping or risk hitting something.

I dunno, maybe it's just me.

XxLHCxX

Haha... I guess I am just used to the BMW/Audi/Porsche ones... They also have visual representations on the screen too...

To each their own

Diesel Benz

I'm not sure if I understood what was the problem when you were driving when it was raining. If Parktronic was beeping, you either were very close to the car in front (where the beep tone was well justified) or the water running down from the bonnet triggered Parktronic sensors? The latter one sounds like bad design (front shape and sensor positions).

On an MB the rear sensors are off except when reversing, so the tone must have been from the front sensors.

It must be a matter of opinion but if you have to turn on sensors when you need them, I find it almost as if you would have to step out of the car and see if there is enough space around the car.

XxLHCxX

It was raining and probably the water was dripping onto the sensor or something because I was just at a stop light with no one in front of me. It also happened to me a few times not just one. I don't really use the front sensors as I can judge approximately how much space is in front of me so it's only when backing up that I use it.

Since it has a back up camera already, I don't even really use the sensors anyways haha...

Diesel Benz

Be careful out there, I've seen a few very experienced drivers at the forum hitting something with their cars and getting scratches. Previously said they don't need parktronic but were honest enough to state they changed their mind.

I've got the rear-view camera on the 221 but I mostly make use of Parktronic. After all when I'm reversing, I'm looking backwards which allows me to have an overview of the rear plus the Parktronic rear sensor indicators. In addition if I'm turning while reversing, the front sensors give me a warning tone if I get too close to an object. The 360 degree camera would have zero added value if I'm looking backwards while reversing. I could turn my head towards the camera every now and then but again, that would be not far from stepping out of the car and checking the surroundings once in a while...

Your argument sounds fair if rain really is such a problem. I don't think I've ever seen front sensors activating from rain when stopping at red lights or something similar. If the car worked like all previous MBs (well, I don't have personal experience about all of them but quite a few still), it would not harm if front sensors activated even if you did not need them. The only "annoyance" would be the distance indicator showing up. The warning tone would not come because you would not drive that close to objects.

If there was "an early approach indicator tone", this would appear at traffic lights and would be really annoying. If BMW does it, then I understand that the front sensors are not automatically activated even at low speed.

A bit unfortunate if this car creates a market for some rainwater piping for the front (except for the one that picks this up as a business idea ).