FTO AUSTRALIA

Is it just me or is the turning radius on the fto really poor? I'm having trouble reverse parking, and find that parallel parking is a definite impossiblity . How're you guys judging when to full turn etc? Thanks

fine with me i prefer to reverse park!

MissxFTO wrote:fine with me i prefer to reverse park!

Yeah, Reverse parking isnt so bad, but how do you find parallel?

Parallel's pretty easy now, but took quite a while to get used to. Completly different to any other car I've driven. Keep practicing!

Never really thought it was any different...

The only thing I don't like is how hard it is to:

1) See out the back when parking - Due to how the boot sits with spoiler
2) See out those little windows to check your blind spots

Only 2 real gripes that I have with the car ...

im fine with parking in any position except front end (hate it)....see if your wheels are aligned properly ? that could be why you cant park properly ...or even something locking your steering...

harry90 wrote:see if your wheels are aligned properly ? that could be why you cant park properly ...or even something locking your steering...

Alright will get it checked out, but err, what can lock your steering?

Thanks everyone, will definitely practice more =]

BTW, are you guys/girls driving manual or auto? Just wondering if there'd be some differences between to the too. I'm personally driving manual, but thinking of selling and changing it to an auto

tiptronic for me...never had this problem....but i have heard of steering being locked and not working properly....i dont know much else about it.....but in my car i get this sort of "release of air" when i turn the steering wheel far towards one side...i dont know what it is and it doesnt happen often...but when it does..you can hear air coming out from behind the steering wheel...

I drive manual ... Was going to get the tip, but yeah, convinced my missus to learn manual ... Wooo Hooo ...

Never had a drama parking in the FTO.. about the only thing I worry about when I'm parking my FTO is whether or not some dick is going to park next to me & open their doors into my car..

... the turning circle is a lot better than most of the other cars I've driven as well..

It might just be because I'm used to it, but I've never had a problem with blind spots in the FTO .. I find that the mirrors are great! A lot of other cars have pissy little mirrors that you can't see anything with .. and even though it only has the small triangular window at the back & large pillar it hasn't been a prob, I feel more comfortable in the FTO than I do in other cars with massive rear windows - I have more blind spots in my gf's Station wagon which is nothing but windows..

I can see pretty much everything thats going on around me at any time in my FTO, bar a quick shoulder check when changing lanes..

Mookiez wrote:Is it just me or is the turning radius on the fto really poor? I'm having trouble reverse parking, and find that parallel parking is a definite impossiblity . How're you guys judging when to full turn etc? Thanks

I guess I didn't really answer your question now that I've read it over again..

The only way you'll really get used to reverse parking is by practicing .. a good tip I can give you is to adjust passenger side mirror so that it is angled downwards, so that you can see the gutter ..

While you're practicing, if you have an arial pooping out from the back of the car you can use that to judge how much distance you've got between the car next to you as well..

If you need to, go get some little flags & blue tac them to the far corners of the car while you're practicing / Turn the headlights on & use the beam to judge how close you are to a wall or the car in front etc.. (I still do this .. can get it down to a couple of mm from a wall without hitting it )

If all else fails, get some parking sensors installed

mr-charisma wrote:If all else fails, get some parking sensors installed

lol!! i think il just practice my reversing in the fto more.

Maybe I just need to adjust, (was driving a 2007 Swift before this)

mr-charisma wrote:the only thing I worry about when I'm parking my FTO is whether or not some dick is going to park next to me & open their doors into my car..

LOL!! Maybe you should install some video cameras on either side of your car, that activate after your cars been hit. Then you could take down their numberplate, find out where they live, and well... the rest is up to you.

Never had trouvble parrallel parkin the toe, mirrors are huge! and if you can in a fto you can in any car, the sx4 has massive mirrors its childs play, kev do you have sensors in the merc?

The fto was easy to park ? And the turning circle i found to be alright! Mirrors on fto was awesome...i had them setup so there was almost no blind spot at all. Move my head a bit and it'd then cover it.

The mps's turning circle sucks...

harry90 wrote:tiptronic for me...never had this problem....but i have heard of steering being locked and not working properly....i dont know much else about it.....but in my car i get this sort of "release of air" when i turn the steering wheel far towards one side...i dont know what it is and it doesnt happen often...but when it does..you can hear air coming out from behind the steering wheel...

that "release of air" sound your refering too has something to do with the power steering and is pretty normal i think.

i always get the sound even when i turn a little bit.

nah thats ya blow off valve mate, its stock

SchumieFan wrote:nah thats ya blow off valve mate, its stock

maggsy wrote:

SchumieFan wrote:nah thats ya blow off valve mate, its stock

Hahaha

My car is pretty low and with 18's the turning circle has never been a problem.... But i do agree that blind spots are terrible in an fto so leaning forward looking through your side mirrors and head checks are a must. In saying that parallel parking has never been a prob (use side mirrors) but seeing either the front of the car or rear when parking has been, i always make sure i leave heaps for error. dont know whether that is caused by my setup now or im just paranoid with the new front bar, cause i never had a prob when it was standard

SchumieFan wrote:nah thats ya blow off valve mate, its stock

excuse my idiocy...but i have heard of a blow off valve...but dont really know what it is...basically i can talk big about cars...and convince someone i know the world about them....but when questions are asked...i got no idea...lol...blow off valve sounds like ... the thing that makes the different noise when you shift gears...is that it ? if it is ...im a champion...

yes, the noise when turbo cars change gears