We currently have a Corsa D loan car. Fine car in many ways, but not nearly as easy to park as such a compact car should be because even though I'm tall, I can't see any part of the bonnet from the drivers seat.
Made me wonder how many other car are like this now - so, can you see the bonnet of your car from the drivers seat?
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It's a pedestrian safety requirement. Low and rounded front edge and sloping bonnet.
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It depends on which car!
Usually, more expensive the car, more adjustments are possible in seats so that you can see the bonnet.
I can see bonnets very clearly in Landrovers, Mercedes S class, Bentley etc. Yet I can't see bonnet for nearly all small cars (exceptions Hyundai Accent).
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I can see bonnets very clearly in Landrovers Mercedes S class Bentley etc.
Oh BIG cars with BIG bonnets you mean
can't see bonnet for nearly all small cars (exceptions Hyundai Accent).
Small cars with Small bonnets you mean
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The bonnet on my wife's Ford Ka was invisible from the driver's seat. This, combined with the wide C-pillars, small rear window and tiny rear view mirrors made it unbelievably difficult to park for such a small car.
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The Scenic's bonnet is completely invisible from the drivers seat. I've never driven a more difficult car to forwards park in a tight space.
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W123 - could drive it at 30mph between two posts with only a few inches either side. More modern cars, have to slow to 10mph or less.
Lady Thatcher always preferred driving Jaguars as she could see the bonnet.
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Lady Thatcher always preferred driving Jaguars as she could see the bonnet.
she was very fond of the montego too apparently
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Fiat Panda has a flat bonnet with a relatively squared off front making it easy to judge where the front of the car is.
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For such small cars, it isn't quite a problem. The bonnet is so narrow, by the time I'm about hit anything it appears that I'm going to hit it with my head :)
But for comparatively bigger cars, it is a pain not being able to see the bonnet!
In Vectra, I can't see the bonnet. I don't want to drive it again.
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This is the reason we had front and rear parking sensors fitted to SWMBO new Mazda 2 - on old Yaris reversing up to something you thought you were just about to hit it - get out and still three foot to go - I could put my old Mk11 Zodiac into tightest spaces no problem but these rounded sloping small cars of today are deceptive.
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After switching from a 306 to a 207, no, I can't - at least not where the front end is. In normal driving this doesn't matter, but on twisty humpy lanes in the Lakes it is rather a nuisance.
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My Yaris has a height adjustable driver's seat. I adjusted it so I could see the bonnet edge.
Say no more and get a decent car.
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My wife has a current shape Yaris and neither of us (me at 5ft 10in and her at 5ft 4in) can see any part of the bonnet from the driver's seat.
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Seeing the end of the bonnet must be important as many drivers dont look beond it.;-)
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Pug 206. Absolute murder.
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See your bonnet? I'm doing well if I can see my toes.:)
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Bit puzzled by this. I'm 6'0" and my wife is 5'3". We can both see the bonnet in all our cars ( two largish and one small ) and can see the other extremities by using the door mirrors. It's just about adjusting your seating position to suit the vehicle you are driving, in my, possibly naive, opinion.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 19/01/2009 at 19:37
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If possible I use shop window reflections to see the ends od my car when parallel parking. Its amusing to see peoples reaction when you reverse to within inches of a car while apparently not looking where you are going. I am 6' 0" and cant see the end of my Focus bonnet, why should I need to? In Italy I was tailgated at 70ish MPH by someone so close I couldent see their bonnet in my rear view mirror, I moved over ASAP.
Edited by Old Navy on 19/01/2009 at 20:54
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I can see the bonnet, but I can't see the front edge of it so I find it difficult to estimate where the front bumper is. What I'd like is to have parking sensors in the front bumper.
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Parking sensors,what for?Move forward until the car in front wobbles a bit and then back off slightly :)
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This is a new one on me. I've had cars where I could hardly see the road because the bonnet was so long, but as for not being able to see "any part of the bonnet"?
I've never driven a small car so I can't picture this - is it really true?
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I've never driven a small car so I can't picture this - is it really true?
I can barely see the front of the bonnet in my Astra G, without sitting up and trying to look over the front
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The worst thing to park is an original Beetle - you can't see any of the corners!
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I've never driven a small car so I can't picture this - is it really true?>>
Yes, at least without straining forward. And not only small cars, I think - original Renault Espace?
Ah for my 1972 Rover, with its sidelights on the absolute edge and little bits of plastic projecting upwards so as to be visible from the driving seat - and real wing mirrors too, of course. I have a feeling the current Micra has a bit more headlamp housing than it really needs, too.
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Move forward until the car in front wobbles a bit and then back off slightly :)
It appears you have less respect for your Sierra bumper than I do for my Focus bumper!
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It appears you have less respect for your Sierra bumper than I do for my Focus bumper!
They are very tough cars-and I was joking.
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.......... and I was joking.
And so was I, so we're quits!
Edited by L'escargot on 21/01/2009 at 09:49
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Snail - no doubt you can remember the Sixties when people used to stick 'lollipops' on their outer wing edges to show where they were?
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Can only see the bit with the washer nozzles on my Hyundai Coupe; but in SWMBO Getz nothing beyond the windscreen is visible. However the bonnet and rear are short and so acoustic parking rarely happens. When I am driving anyway.
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Anyone remember the Ford Zepyhr / Zodiac of the late 1960s - a bonnet long enough to use as a snooker table.
And the Mk 1 and Mk 3 Viva - so square that the designers obviously used cardboard boxes to design them. Seeing the bonet / rear end was not an issue.
The first car had where I coulodn't see the front was a Saab 99 - but it didn't matter, 'cos the thick self-repairing bumpers meant you never damaged your own car!
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Snail - no doubt you can remember the Sixties .........
I do indeed, and I never had any problem with parking in those days. Nice horizontal bonnets, and large rear windows. But they were the only good things about 1960s cars!
Edited by L'escargot on 21/01/2009 at 08:09
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i think part of the problem is the perpencity (ok i'm using big words to look edumacated) for manufacturers to fit 3ft deep dashboards that put you even further back from the front end oh how i long for the days when the dashboard wasnt even deep enough to rest your sunglasses on
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>>for manufacturers to fit 3ft deep dashboards that put you even further back>>
Car design is following the trend of flat fronted trucks, the engine has to go somewere.
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........... the perpencity .......
Eh?
......... for manufacturers to fit 3ft deep dashboards that put you even further back from the front end.
The further my face is from the windscreen the better I like it. I wouldn't want my face to contact the screen in the event of an accident.
Edited by L'escargot on 21/01/2009 at 09:19
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The further my face is from the windscreen the better I like it. I wouldn't want my face to contact the screen in the event of an accident.
not a problem for those of us who already look like a beating with the ugly stick is a regular occurence
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........... the perpencity .......
Eh?
I think he meant propensity.........
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I think he meant propensity.........
thats what i meant.......was a typo honest guv'nor
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i think part of the problem is the perpencity (ok i'm using big words to look edumacated) for manufacturers to fit 3ft deep dashboards that put you even further back from the front end oh how i long for the days when the dashboard wasnt even deep enough to rest your sunglasses on
The new VW beetle for example is far to long for my liking that just eccesisive, LOL!
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Try an E-Type! must be at least six feet of bonnet that you can't see!
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Some people can't see beyond the end of their own nose!
;-)
Edited by L'escargot on 21/01/2009 at 20:39
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slightly off topic...
At the building where I used to work some intellectual giant came up with the idea of sprucing up the multistory carpark, with a nice gallon or several of semi-gloss white paint.
Very clever - considering a lot of the cars here are white.
After a week of people bashing their cars against the walls and pillars, because they could no longer see where the car ended and use it as a reference point when manouevering, due to the white-on-white scenario, the management had to repaint a 3ft stripe along the wall in dark gray!
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