A vehicle contact avoidance system includes a detection system, a warning system, and a controller. The detection system is configured to detect a remote obstacle in proximity to a host vehicle equipped with the vehicle contact avoidance system, including information related to at least one of a speed, a direction and a distance of the remote obstacle relative to the host vehicle. The warning system is configured to emit a warning sound to notify a driver of the host vehicle of imminent contact between the host vehicle and the remote obstacle. The controller is programmed to determine whether contact between the host vehicle and the remote obstacle is imminent based of the information supplied to the controller by the detection system, and programmed to cause the warning system to emit the warning sound. The warning sound includes a non-speech portion and a speech portion.