When leaving home for work or another chosen destination, we imagine that the first thing on the motorist mind is not how easy the car will be to park, but where will he or she find a car park that will have a space to leave the car. With traffic on our roads getting worse, parking spaces that are easy to find and easy to fit into are becoming, as the saying goes, rarer than hen’s teeth!
However, for many car parking is the stuff of nightmares. Many drivers find that reversing into a space, or undertaking parallel parking is to be avoided at all costs. With this in mind, the motor industry has been working to make it easier for drivers to park their cars, in some cases doing the job for them!
In common with most things in life, much depends upon how much a person is prepared to pay to find a car which is easy to park. There is a range of small cars that will enable the driver to find parking easier.
Smart Fortwo
The smallest car that we have chosen is the Smart Fortwo which is a micro city car from the Smart division of Daimler AG. Just about any driver will not have too much trouble getting this into the smallest of spaces; it measures just 2.7 metres long and very narrow too. Another advantage is the rear window marks the back of the car, making it very easy to tell just where the back of the car is.
BMW i3
Of course the Smart is small but if you need four seats as well as some boot room, then perhaps the BMWi3 could be the car for you. This is an electric car, which means that it has advantages in London and other places with the congestion charge, plus zero VED charge.
Along with other electric cars, low mileage range on a single charge can be a problem, but you can buy the version with the range extender, which features a small petrol engine to recharge the battery once you’ve used the majority of electric power, extending the range from about 195 to near 276 miles.
For those drivers not confident about parking, even in a small car such as the i3, for £790 additional extra you can add park assist which at the press of a button, the system scans for a parking space as you drive down the street, finds a spot and once the drivers stops, it will it’ll parallel park itself autonomously.
Skoda Yeti
The Skoda Yeti like the BMW will, for £590 extra, also identify parking spaces, but unlike the BMW, it still needs the driver to operate the brake and accelerator, although the car steers itself. Even without parking assist, the Skoda is easy to park, thanks to the rather boxy design and high driving position this means the corners of the car are easy to see from the driver’s seat.
Ford B-Max
Ford have come up with a design in the B-Max which is a great help to mothers putting baby seats in and taking them out. It has sliding rear doors, another plus it stops kids slamming the door into the car next to it in the supermarket car park, surely a bonus. Although it does not have parking assist the B-Max does have parking sensors to make parking easier and it offers great visibility from the driver’s seat and it is just slightly over 4 metres long.
BMW 7 Series
Money can buy you most things and for those looking for something nearer a luxury travelling experience, along with help for the driver with the ultimate in easy parking, then the BMW 7 Series has the answer.
Just like the “little brother” the i3, it has the option of park assist; it does not stop there though, it goes one stage further with full remote-control parking. No problems parking this motor, the car identifies a space and then the driver and passengers can get out and using the key, they can instruct the car to park by itself.
The downside is that it costs an extra £1,100 for this Advanced Parking package, but in the grand scheme of things with prices for the 7 Series starting at just over £63,000, an added £1,100 for a car 5 metres long it could be well worth it, and most drivers would appreciate any help they could get.
Take the hassle out of parking by booking a car parking space through YourParkingSpace. Choose from thousands of hourly, daily and monthly spaces available nationwide.
