Newbie - E70 3.0sd M Sport - Hi and Tips for Parking

[afhussain]

I have been lurking on this forum for a while.  I wanted to say Hi!  We bought an E70 at the weekend for the better half after her Audi A4 died which served us well for 9 years.

I really like the car as does my wife, she seems to be fine driving it although it is bulkier than her Audi A4 was, well that was until we went to our local multi-storey car park and she tried to bay park.  The X5 doesn't like small parking spaces, the turning circle is rather poor and the steering is quite heavy.  I am used to big cars (I drive a long wheel based Mercedes S) but even I was shocked at the large turning circle.

Anyway, after calming her down and promising her that I will replace the car with something else if she doesn't get used to the parking space I thought I would do get some tips from fellow X5 drivers about parking.

The car has a reversing camera and she found it easier to reverse park using the line but even that wasn't very straight forward.

The advice I have given her so far is that when forward parking into a bay, aim for the parking space after the one you want to park in and reverse back and you should be able to drive forward into the empty space.

I have also said that it would be easier to reverse park.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.  I don't want to have to sell the car just because of bay parking.

I am sure I will have lots of questions but for the moment I will use the search tool.  I will post some pictures when I get a chance.

[weirdfish]

Welcome.
You're very brave, I think, for posting a question regarding women and parking, I do hope you have a sense of humour as I'm sure some of the replies will be of the, less than serious kind,lol.
Of course, I stand to be corrected 

[535dboy]

One of the things that pissed me off when I Owned one

Never went in forwards because you never know what will be there when you get back and it could be ten times more difficult to reverse out.

[Steamyrotter]

Reverse parking always...
You'll never back the thing out easily!

Or as above find 2 spaces (in a line) and drive through to the second space.

Also good use of the door mirrors. 
Use the self dip on the passengers side, and dont be afraid to dip the drivers side too

May sound silly but practice in an empty car park to get used to the mirrors and where the PDC triggers etc

[Dr C]

I usually try to get an end space and park as tight as possible to edge, if it's a free car park like at my local shopping centre I always take up two spaces. Yes I know that makes me a tw4t but I'd rather be one than have my motor dinged.

Last resort is to take the kids and get a parent and child space!

[afhussain]

thanks for all the comments.  I we tried to the 'pretend you are parking in the next space' technique and it does work.  I will take your advice and let her get used to the PDC and camera.  She is driving it much more confidently and I am sure parking will improve.

To be fair, she is a good driver.

Although I drive a merc now I am a huge BMW fan, I have had several 3 series (E36, E46, E90) and also an X5 E53 4.6is (13mpg around town).  The idea is that the X5 will become the family car and then I can have my mid life crisis and get something sporty again.