Be sure to use your parking brake!

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
I always apply the parking brake as well despite having the auto tranny, it's a habit from driving the manual, but it's just an extra safety net, plus keeps all the parts moving and keeps them from sticking when I do need to use the parking brake.


I do the same thing, for the same reasons and habits. Plus, every used car I've bought has needed the handbrake cables replaced because the previous owners never used it at all; so the brake cables rust, and from lack of any use, seize up over time.

Its a handy thing to have even in an auto tranny, though not many others seem to realize it and use it enough to at least prevent it from seizing up.

Earlier this winter I had a brake line rupture, and lost almost all my braking power on the way home from work. I pulled off onto slower, flatter routes and drove very slowly, knowing the handbrake was there and working if I needed it. I never did (I could still stop with the regular brakes, I just needed a lot more room to do it and had to keep the speed way down to nothing).

-Spyder

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: glum

Had I known they kept that idiotic design I would not have let her buy that car.


I thought that there were NHTSA or DOT regulations which required the brake interlock.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: Astro14

While that is true, there are several reasons to use the parking brake:
4. Using the parking brake is recommended by every manufacturer.


I'll add one:

5. If you don't use it, it may freeze up and won't work when it's checked during the annual safety inspection, then you'll have to fix it.

 

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
Originally Posted By: Astro14

While that is true, there are several reasons to use the parking brake:
4. Using the parking brake is recommended by every manufacturer.


I'll add one:

5. If you don't use it, it may freeze up and won't work when it's checked during the annual safety inspection, then you'll have to fix it.


Here the law is that non-commercial autos only need to be inspected when they are sold (by the buyer, who has to show proof of inspection before it can be registered and insured by the new owner). My car in sig was 10 years old when I bought it, and I doubt the handbrake had ever been lifted by the previous owner.

Every used car I've ever owned (all were at least 8 years old when I bought them), including a manual (the previous owner would leave it in gear rather than use the handbrake), had seized handbrake cables when I bought them that needed replacing.

Since the "parking" brake doubles as an emergency break, and I have in my lifetime lost brakes three times (one complete failure doing 60+ mph on the TCH about 20 years ago in my first car, and two partial failures that took away most of my braking power - one on that same car, one on this car in sig), I'm pretty zealous about using it regularly. Easy habit to adopt for some piece of mind should I ever have another brake failure.

Unlike some of the Darwinian award chasing younger drivers I've encountered on the streets, I don't use it as a subsitute for regular braking, however.

I never got clipped (and to avoid the accident, nearly put my car over a sidewalk), when the teen in the next lane got it in his head to show off in his new (or more likely, his dad's) Civic Si by attempting (and totally failing) a hand-brake U-turn - in traffic, and on dry pavement. Instead of turning the car as he expected, it simply threw the car sideways where it crossed my lane and would have hit my car had I not nearly put it over the sidewalk to avoid being hit by him.

In hindsight, its too bad reflexes took over at that time, as it would have taught him a very expensive lesson if he'd clipped me (not because of the value of my car, but the ding it would have done to his insurance in the 'at fault' accident he would have created, plus the repair bill on bodywork to the new Civic). I imagine daddy would not have been pleased and that would probably have been the last time he got the keys to it. Then again, with parents as permissive as they are these days, maybe not.

-Spyder

 

[glum]

Originally Posted By: css9450
I wonder, though, could the Mercedes have been broken somehow?

I can't thank you enough for pointing this out. As I mentioned, my experience with Mercedes vehicles made me think they were just designed that way. I've checked the C230's manual and it says that the AT should be locked in Park until the "service brake" is pressed. But I did a quick check and it happily shifts out of Park without the brake being pressed.

I didn't need another reason to hate this vehicle, but now I have one. I can't afford to fix this right now, but can't afford not to, either. Can't afford another vehicle either, especially since the wife insists on the next one being a bloody convertible.

Thanks again.

 

[antonmnster]

So obviously insurance fraud. "Oh, I stopped with the car pointing down hill right towards a body of water in a secluded area."

I like how the car was going fast enough when it hit the water that it broke the windshield. Since it's all electronic, I wonder how the insurance company will prove that it was left in "D".

When I was younger I took the parents' 5-speed '84 Accord to go to a movie. It's handbrake - like many in Minnesota - was rusted up and didn't work. When I came out of the movie the car was not where I parked it.

It was up against the door of a Taurus, with its owner standing there with a quizzical look on her face. Her car was no gem, and shrugged it off, thankfully.

 

[hardcore302]

probably turned it off in drive.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: css9450
I know GM cars have required use of the brake pedal before shifting since about 1992, for example.


Just checked my 1997 (Oz) GM Caprice (L67 with 4L60E trans), and it shifts without key in ignition or brake...just like nearly every auto I've ever driven in Oz.

 

[Craig in Canada]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: css9450
I know GM cars have required use of the brake pedal before shifting since about 1992, for example.


Just checked my 1997 (Oz) GM Caprice (L67 with 4L60E trans), and it shifts without key in ignition or brake...just like nearly every auto I've ever driven in Oz.


It's probably a USA-only law. I don't own any autos, but our Canadian cars are equipped with the same brake pedal interlock. I don't know if it's "US version" spillover, or whether the Canadian government requires it also.