Electronic Parking Brakes

[KneesUp]

I have a hire car at the moment for reasons related to a member of the public deciding to park his car overlapping the front of ours somewhat.

As with the last hire car I had (not insurance related - I'm not that unlucky!) it has an electric handbrake - just a little switch you pull to make it engage. It's rubbish.

Firstly it takes about a second to do anything, so you stop, feel around for the tiny switch instead of the large lever, and then pull it, and take your foot off the brake as you would do in a normal car (unless you're one of those annying types that just keeps the footbrake on, annoying the person behind) and it rolls a bit and then jolts to a stop. Next time you remember to allow for the delay, but the time after you forget again.

Seconly you can seemingly only release it by driving the car, so although it has start/stop, you have to keep starting the car to get downhill in traffic because you can't roll it - you can only get the sodding brake off by trying to drive.

Thirdly, it makes edging out of a junction on a very steep hill either terrible for the clutch, or rather less than smooth - the brake is totally binary, so you can't do that 'hold it on the clutch and handbrake and then let a little handbrake off' thing that is so useful in such (albeit rare) instances.

Apart from that the stereo is nice, and the rest of the car is utterly forgettable. And it's a bloody diesel.

 

[swee'pea99]

Reminds me of the recent thread where people were bemoaning the introduction of touch-screen controls which demand that you take your eyes off the road to turn the fans on/off and any number of other basic functions. It does sometimes feel like technology is actually regressing - all sorts of stuff that wasn't broke is being 'fixed', thereby being farked.

 

[Drago]

How many drivers actually use their handbrake these days, other than when parking?

 

[Salar]

They do take some getting used to. I had one on my Subaru which worked well.

Our Jeep has one, they are a bit scary the first time you use them, particularly on a hill at the lights or reversing down a slope.

The Americans like them, more room for cup holders.

 

[Chris S]

How many drivers actually use their handbrake these days, other than when parking?

It would be tricky to do hill-starts without them. I'm not sure how people manage to do them in cars with foot operated parking brakes.

 

[Drago]

Its the muppets that sit at junctions with their foot on the break that boil my wee wee. Not in proper control, needlessly blinding the driver behind them (people have occasionally been ticketed for that aspect), damaging their brakes through repeated uneven cooling of the discs. Plums, the lot of them.

I seem to have become a very angry pensioner!

 

[Oldfentiger]

The Wife's C Class Merc has a hold function, applied by pressing the brake and releasing while stationary. It releases automatically when you drive off.
Trouble is, while the brakes are in hold mode, the brake lights are lit.
Like Drago, I'm old skool and expect everyone to apply their conventional handbrake while waiting at lights, and grumble incessantly if they're burning my eyeballs.

 

[Wafer]

Mines great, if it's the same, you can release the brake manually by pushing it down while pressing the brake iirc.
Hill starts also easier, even when just using the foot brake it holds for a little extra while you get the revs up and ease the clutch off.
I have always put my hand brake on once at a complete stop, so no issue with it rolling...

Basically, it's a new different thing that takes a small amount of time to adjust to and you don't like it...

 

[Drago]

I recall from Mrs D's old 3008 and CRV apthat the handbrake disengaged itself when pulling away. One only needed to manually apply it.

 

[KnackeredBike]

Problem is all these "improvements" also add weight to the car which make it sluggish and ultimately people are paying fuel to cart around.

At some stage someone will realise there is a market for a stripped back supermini with a big (preferably electri) engine weighing under a ton.

Until then I'm sticking with my Mk1 Clio, 875kg and brilliant fun to drive.

 

[Markymark]

Problem is all these "improvements" also add weight to the car which make it sluggish and ultimately people are paying fuel to cart around.

At some stage someone will realise there is a market for a stripped back supermini with a big (preferably electri) engine weighing under a ton.

Until then I'm sticking with my Mk1 Clio, 875kg and brilliant fun to drive.

Is the button and motor heavier than the ratchet and lever?

 

[Bimble]

Developed a similar dislike of the Hill Start brake feature. When you stopped on an incline it would keep the brakes fully engaged for about 3 seconds, supposedly to give you time to move your feet to the clutch / accelerator, a skill I'd developed over years of driving and could do within a fraction of a second without too much thought, leaving me "stuck" for enough time for the traffic in front to move off and the opposing traffic, waiting to turn across the lane, to take the opportunity to drive across in front of me; nevermind the rolled-eyes I got from impatient drivers behind me. I eventually dug into the menu system to turn it off. Ahhh ... much better.

 

[numbnuts]

How many drivers actually use their handbrake these days, other than when parking?

I do

 

[Drago]

As you age your visual sensitivity shifts towards the red end of the spectrum, so it becomes more uncomfortable the older you get.

 

[KnackeredBike]

Is the button and motor heavier than the ratchet and lever?