How to park parallel to kerb

[OilSheikh]

I have been taking lessons for more than a year, have spent £££ but still haven't figured out how to park a Nissan Micra automatic parallel and close to the kerb.
I always oversteer and either the front or the bum is sticking out. Trying to fix that results in further mess. I have also failed 2 driving tests already.

Would love advice from some experienced Hexius drivers on how to tackel this. How do you know if your car is straight ?

[Marenghi]

practice and more practice is the key. for a small car i will bring the car to a stop parallel to the car at the front with the wing mirrors lined up to the wing mirrors on the other car. full lock or near enough from there should get you into the space but obviously watch out for your bonnet getting close the car in front!

spacial awareness in cars is something that comes with practice, i'm not aware of any 'tricks' that will let you know when your car is straight other than looking down the line of your bonnet and seeing whether the lines match up with the car in front or the kerb.

good luck

[kalniel]

Or you could buy a car that does it for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOfTNqgqPMA

[Willzzz]

Yeah line up with the car in front, then do 1 full turn to get in, 1 full turn to get back to straight, then 1 full turn the other way to end up straight. There will be certain points for your car where you have to make these turns, just practice to find the points then remember them.

Make sure to make exactly 1 full turn at a fast pace to ensure consistency, if you aren't consistent the timings for your turns will change. After a while you will just do it without thinking.

[Galant]

This one seems pretty much how I was taught: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTU5u...eature=related

That plus lots of practise!

Or you can try the alternate - 'Park Like A Boss' - method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzqwT5ANZiw

[GoNz0]

use the bus ?


if its such a problem find a quiet place and mock up a layout of 2 cars + gap with some chalk lines to follow in, dip the left hand mirror so you can see the rear left wheel.

i can't park a 7.5T Lorry without seeing the back left wheel as a guide.

[Zak33]

the issue is normally that the driver, who's struggling, is forgetting the basics of what's happening mechanically.. ie WHAT HAPPENS under the car when the wheel is turned, both at the front and the rear.

I'll explain, see if it helps.

Only the front wheels steer. The backs just want to go straight.
When you move forward OR backwards on full steering lock.. one rear tyre hardly moves at all.. the other rear moves further.

Remember that!

Rule: turn wheel a LOT .... while not moving. Power Steering is there to help. Use it.. the tyres do NOT wear out quicker.

When you go backwards, and turn the wheel a lot, the front of the WHOLE car moves sideways OPPOSITE to the way you turned the wheel.... if you turn the wheel a LOT to the left, the front of the car actually goes slightly RIGHT, while going backwards, because the tyres are aiming right on their back edges. Can't imagine it? Turn steering wheel on car.. get out of car.. look at tyres.. which way is the BACK of the tyres aiming.... ? It's aiming the opposite way to the front, and therefore opposite to where you steered.

This is good news...because as you roll backwards, the front goes wide the opposite way to your steering wheel and makes the two rear wheels rotate about their central point (about where the spare wheel is) and aims the arse end of the car into the kerb.

So.. parallel to kerb.. but miles out.... turn wheel opposite way to kerb, all the way.. then move back slowly.

Once you've got the car going backwards at 45degrees (ie diagonal so very sharp angle) to the kerb.. slow to a halt...turn the wheel until it's straight and go backwards slowly STRAIGHT until NEARLY touching the kerb.....(use the door mirror.. aimed down.. and look...slowly... move back.. until nearly touching.)

Now.. when you reverse the steering steering wheel to the other side.. it forces the front of the car to again go the opposite way to the steering wheel and THAT bring's the car back to parallel to the kerb. BUT... it DOES allow the rear wheels to keep moving slightly more towards the kerb before becoming straight. That's why you stopped a little short.

The secret to really good parallel parking... (and I don't know if you're allowed to do this in the test, but in real life it works every time) is?

Well, once you're going backwards to the kerb at 45 degrees with your wheel straight, stop, turn the wheel maximum the other way, and then move the car backwards, with this reverse full lock until the rear tyre is about to touch the kerb. Stop moving... full lock to the kerb.. move forward a few feet.. no more, probalb only about 2 feel in a little hatch... and that will bring the nose INTO ther kerb a TINY bit.. irrelevent amount BUT....it moves the REAR fractionally away from the kerb.. a TINY amount.....you moved a few FEET forward ON FULL LOCK forward.. and yet the rear tyres have only moved a few INCHES from the kerb.

Now youre at a much gentler angle to the kerb and can polish the move.... gentle considered moves in nice smooth short bits. Prolly only need one more.

So:

Parallel to kerb miles out... full lock away from kerb, reverse uintil at steep angle to kerb then straighten wheel and reverse car until close to kerb in mirror.
1st gear, full steering lock INTO kerb, and move forward a TINY bit... a foot or two at most. ONce stopped, look in kerb mirror again.. see... it's still really close to kerb because your 2 feet forward was actually 2 feet diagonal on full lock.

Reverse and turn wheel to straighten.

[SHare]

Like most others the best method is in the video. Generally I found the best advice was to imagine that on the first stage (left hand down on initial reverse) you're trying reverse the rear kerbside tyre to within a foot of perfect final position, take it slowly. Then full lock (right hand down) to pivot the nose into place, then a little roll forward to straighten up the wheels and and admire your fine parking.

[Zak33]

Like most others the best method is in the video. Generally I found the best advice was to imagine that on the first stage (left hand down on initial reverse) you're trying reverse the rear kerbside tyre to within a foot of perfect final position, take it slowly. Then full lock (right hand down) to pivot the nose into place, then a little roll forward to straighten up the wheels and and admire your fine parking.

ooh.. contention.

I was taught like that.. .but after 16 years of parking cars on forecourts I realised it was flawed

the full left lock and in back is right.. but the full right lock and back can let you down... and the longer the car the less useful it is.

so.. left full lock and back.. straighten wheel and reverse to kerb, then fll right lock is fine.. BUT AS SOON AS YOURE NEAR THE KERB.... do the full left and forward for a tiny amount.. and THEN do the full right lock and backwards....

[Knoxville]

Rule: turn wheel a LOT .... while not moving. Power Steering is there to help. Use it.. the tyres do NOT wear out quicker.

Not to be the guy that disagrees but the way I've been taught is to avoid as much dry steering as possible because you can be marked down for making a habit of it. It's easy with power steering but a no no on test day that's up there with touching the kerb, at least that's my understanding anyway.

I'm not sure if it'll help as my method is much the same as some already mentioned but, pull up along side whoever you want to park behind, reverse back slowly until your wing mirrors are about level then apply full lock towards the kerb quickly, continue slowly backwards while making all the necessary observations and then use either the mirrors or as I do, a point on the passenger side rear window just ahead of the c pillar where the kerb will just come into view to judge how close you are.

As soon as the kerb's in sight at that spot in the rear window or my mirrors it's full lock the opposite direction nice and quickly and then little adjustments using the passenger side mirror as a guide to straighten up and get tighter into the kerb if needs be. It's the maneuver of the three I find simplest, left reverse was my achilles heel to be honest but even then it was just about finding the right reference points in my field of vision and even more importantly going slower than a slow thing on a slow day, the slower you go, the more time you've got to observe, think and adjust.

[TAKTAK]

Never really thought about explaining it. Parallel parking is one of the things that I picked up properly when I was driving a long wheelbase van round for a living after my driving instructor explained in terms of his car being 1 and a half turns of the wheel, line the mirror up with their number plate then full lock... Which wasn't really helpful transitioning to other cars...

But I guess I line my car up with the car in front, go in about 45 degrees and then full lock back when the wheel is ~1 foot from the curb. It's one of those things that sort of just clicks once you're doing it constantly.
But van driving helped my driving no end, especially after some of the situations I ended up in (a temporary roadway collapsing and having to be pulled out by a crane was the best xD)

[Tumble]

and YET ANOTHER method, that does work, (I know cos I passed my test with it). See your gap, go to drive into it forwards, but only pretend, so you go into the space and you come straight out again - the only thing is, your steering, to get you nicely alongside the car in front of where you want to park is at a PERFECT angle to nip backwards, watching the kerb in you mirror (aimed down like Zak said) and then when you're almost touching the kerb with the rear wheel, take all the lock off and you should be if not perfectly in the space, not a million miles away that a quick shuffle forwards won't sort out

[Gerrard]

One way I helped myself, which may not be allowed now, was to use a blind spot mirror that attach to the top of the wing mirror and angle it down so I could see the rear wheel and kerb. Thinking about it, I seem to rarely need to parallel park, and most of those times the spaces aren't tight, but I still go by the rear wheel; even moving my electric wing mirror down to see it!

When my Dad was a driving instructor, he used to use different coloured thumb tacks on the seal of the left hand read window for the the reverse manoeuvres as certain things lined up (ie, a kerb or car etc). That seemed to work well, but did assume consistency of the pupil's eye line when they turned their head each time. Also didn't do the window seal any good either!

[Fortune117]

I learned by lining my car up with the car infront (wing mirrors) then take it back so that your wing mirrors are parallel with the rear of the car infront, put full lock on until your car is facing "2 o'clock" then stop. Make sure to look around if you're on a test. Back up into the space until your point of turn (On my car the crease on my bodywork lines up with the curb, yours may be different). Then put a full right lock on and your car should swing into place, just stop when your rear wheels are parallel to the curb.

[ZaO]

Learn to use your wing mirrors mate. If you don't know how to use your wing mirrors then you're never gonna learn to park and pass a test. I've always noticed that people who are sketchy as crap at reversing and parallel parking are crap at using their mirrors.

[KeyboardDemon]

This one seems pretty much how I was taught: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTU5u...eature=related

That plus lots of practise!

Or you can try the alternate - 'Park Like A Boss' - method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzqwT5ANZiw

Even after 25 years of driving experience I have never really felt confident with parallel parking, this is a great tutorial, I was never taught to use my rear nearside quarter window, offside mirror and then the top of nearside mirror to find the marker points for turning, that should help me a lot.