Well, after owning our van for seven years since it was brand new and not putting so much as a chip on it in all that time, I recently drove into my covered car trailer that is parked on the other side of our drive. I have made this manoeuvre many many times without incident, so why this time?
Before explaining, I must just say that the damage was very minor but annoying none the less. Since repaired.
Having thought about it I think the answer is very much a case of "pilot error".
We own two modern cars, a 2017 Skoda Yeti and a 2019 VW California Beach. Both are fitted with what I believe is called Park Distance Control or something like that - (front and rear parking sensors linked to a graphic plan view of the car displayed on the screen of the infotainment system. When you get close to something it starts to beep and the point on the car that is close to the obstruction turns orange on the graphic. If you go closer it beeps more furiously and as the gap closes the colour changes to red on the graphic. If you continue on past that point the system emits a loud crunching sound).
Anyway, on the Yeti, which we use way more often, this system always seems to activate when the front gets close to something thereby alerting you to the close proximity of an object in front or so I thought. However, as a result of this incident, I discovered that the Beach does not do this and as it turns out, neither does the Yeti.
Initially, I thought that the system on the Beach had developed a fault but no. Upon reading the owners manual I discovered or more accurately, remembered that the front sensors are deactivated when the vehicle goes over 10mph and do not come back on unless you manually press the systems button on the dash or engage reverse.
So, having scanned the owners manual seven years ago, by the time of the said incident, I had completely forgotten all about this feature. I therefore assumed that it wasn't beeping because I wasn't about to hit the trailer. Wrong!
So why, I thought, does the system deactivate when you get above 10mph? Apparently, it's to prevent it from beeping when you are in stationary or in slow moving traffic.
Frankly, I would rather it reactivated when it drops below 10mph or stayed active all of the time. It shouldn't beep unless you get too close to the car in front and it would enable muppets like me to realise that they were about to hit something. In fact I think it can be altered to work all of the time by using one of those fancy code reading diognostic tools. I may have that done when I have the van serviced on Wednesday.
not been handed in at my usual garage. Replacement ordered. ££
