If you live in a small town, chances are you don’t need to parallel park that often. In fact, some states don’t even require that you learn how to parallel park to get your driver’s license. Just like driving a car with a manual transmission, being able to properly parallel park seems to be a skill that is dying out. Lucky for us, among all of the other cool technology features modern cars have gotten, the ability to park themselves happens to be one of them, at least in some cars. Even if you know how to parallel park and have to do it often, comparing the options in these cars can save you a lot of time, energy, and frustration.

The luxury of BMW

The 2019 BMW 7 Series probably wasn’t on your radar, unless you like a high-end luxury. Among everything else this sporty-looking sedan has to offer, it has the option for a pretty nifty parking assist feature. While it does rely on the driver to switch gears between drive and reverse, as well as accelerating and brakes, the car itself handles spot selection and steering.

Selecting the Executive trim on the more affordable 3 Series and you will also find this feature available, though it is far less common. Overall, drivers have a lot of positive things to say about BMW’s parking assistant option.

Mercedes-Benz

Keeping with the trend of luxury, of course, Mercedes-Benz offers something along the same lines. The luxury of the Benz E-Class offers the Parking Assist package, which is pretty self-explanatory. Like the BMW options, the vehicle handles the steering and distance assessments while the driver handles gear selection and pedal work. This just adds to the impressive and extensive list of optional packages offered by Mercedes-Benz.

The more surprising options

You don’t have to pay top dollar for a brand new luxury vehicle to enjoy the features of a semi-self parking car. The 2018 Ford Focus and 2019 Ford Escape might not look too similar, but you can get the parking assist option in both for less than an additional $1,000. They essentially work the same as Mercedes-Benz and BMW and can help you quickly and easily get into any reasonable parallel parking spot.

Having a car that is self-driving might be a dream for the future, but having something that you can trust to squeeze you into a parallel parking spot is something that you can have today. While you can opt for the expensive packages on luxury vehicles, the technology is becoming so readily available that you can get it on more reasonably priced options as well.