Rear Cross-Traffic Alert Is a Worthwhile Feature To Get - 2016 Kia Optima Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,316
edited June 2016 in Kia
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Rear Cross-Traffic Alert Is a Worthwhile Feature To Get - 2016 Kia Optima Long-Term Road Test

The 2016 Kia Optima's rear cross-traffic alert feature is handy and well-executed. It is a worthwhile option to get.

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  • vvkvvk Member Posts: 196
    Modern car designers love coming up with expensive solutions to problems they create themselves. Poor visibility? Let's load up on annoying and expensive alerts. Cold/hot leather seats? Let's put in heating/cooling. Idiotically large wheels/tires? No problem, we can use adaptive dampers and charge even more. I can go on and on. Most of these new "features" are useless if the car is well designed in the first place. Nobody needs adaptive suspension with 60/65 sidewall.

    Also, I always back into a parking space, no need for cross traffic alerts when you pull out facing the road.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    What poor pedestrian do you clobber backing into those spaces? :)

    I'm with you on the big wheels, but I want the nannies - they help warn you of idiotic drivers.
  • brian125brian125 Member Posts: 5,244
    Its a perfect system for city driving and heavily populated area's.

    23 Telluride SX-P X-Line, 23 Camry XSE

  • schen72schen72 Member Posts: 433
    vvk said:

    Modern car designers love coming up with expensive solutions to problems they create themselves. Poor visibility? Let's load up on annoying and expensive alerts. Cold/hot leather seats? Let's put in heating/cooling. Idiotically large wheels/tires? No problem, we can use adaptive dampers and charge even more. I can go on and on. Most of these new "features" are useless if the car is well designed in the first place. Nobody needs adaptive suspension with 60/65 sidewall.

    Also, I always back into a parking space, no need for cross traffic alerts when you pull out facing the road.

    I also try to back in whenever possible, but sometimes it's not possible. Examples: angled spaces, or when I carrying a stroller for baby. If I back in, I cannot easily access the rear hatch to get all the stroller stuff out. Cross traffic alert is one of those features that are cheap to implement. All the hardware is already there. It's just software to activate a beeping sound when a certain condition exists.
  • lmacmillmacmil Member Posts: 1,758
    There is at least one public parking garage in the country (in Sarasota, FL) where backing in is illegal. And I got a $30 parking ticket to prove it!
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    I like to find a empty opening where I can just pull through and then can leave without backing.

    Saves a lot of grief and gas. But you may have to walk 100' futher to the front door.
  • black07gtiblack07gti Member Posts: 5
    Back-up cams and cross-traffic alerts are hugely useful and valuable features even in cars that have decent visibility. Too bad the BMW driven by the guy who backed out right into my stopped car in a supermarket parking lot did not even have a camera. Would have saved him some insurance money. Not all of the nannies are great, but these are absolutely worth the money and more.
  • 5vzfe5vzfe Member Posts: 161
    I think the best back up systems are the ones that will brake for you if the car thinks you might hit something. A little intrusive perhaps, but every time I see some heartbreaking story about some kid who gets backed over I can't help thinking why it's not more of a standard issue thing. VSC is extremely complicated, it's able to control the individual brakes for you, and it's now mandatory. So I think back-up cameras and auto braking in reverse should be as well. Even cars with excellent visibility still have blind spots near the bumper.
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