Parking sensors - a couple of questions

Finally picked up my new Evoque yesterday - a standard Dynamic. It's quite a big change from my TT (replaced due to impending baby) but it's definitely remarkable how well it drives - I'm not missing the TT as much as I thought I would in that respect.

Where the difference is notable however is parking at work. It's a typical, badly designed 1970s car park with tight spaces made all the worse by the presence of large concrete pillars - it's not uncommon to see a parking related mishap in there.

Basically, the Evoque's the first car I've owned with parking sensors and I want to make sure my expectations of them are correct. A couple of questions:

1. If I select reverse and then go back to first gear, do the front sensors remain on? This seems to be the case but I just want to make sure.
2. Can I turn the front sensors on manually without having to select reverse first?
3. Are the sensors only right at the front and back of the car? For example, if I swing too close to an object with the front wheel arch for example, is the car going to let me know or not?
   

Thanks!

Hi JonnyA

1. Yes, you should see the LED on the P hard button in the dash centre display is still lit.
2. Yes press the P button at anytime to turn them on or off.
3. You should be careful with the sides the very front side will be covered, but not as far as the wheel arch.

If you are driving directly upto a wall don't forget to press the button or the first sound you'll hear will be the crunch!

   

Cheers. Any idea how close the car let's you get before the bleeps turn solid?

That happens about 30cm from the wall IIRC
One thing to remember as well is the two stage warning from the rear PDC and the cam. Where the amber blocks that appear on the screen change to red and where the tone of the peeper changes is also the limit for the boot lid clearing the wall behind you when you open it using the remote tailgate release and the tailgate will not scrape the boot lid as it goes up.
As I found to my cost the rear PDC will not pick up tubular posts behind the car unless they are within 1m directly behind a sensor head............ cost me £1600 for a new tailgate!

I always stop when the beeps go continuous, but usually there's under a metre left to go on mine.