Thanks to this thread I have no learned that I don't need to disengage the hand brake on the new car before driving off...
The Corolla has the CVT gearbox, but the drivetrain is accessed via what looks like a standard auto gear selector of P --> R --> N --> D, plus there's a little button/switch to engage the electric brake - you come to a halt at lights, put it into N and flick the brake on (no brake lights showing at the back, but a suitable red light on the dashboard). As soon as you put it back into D and tap the accelerator, handbrake goes off. Easy peasy.
I borrowed the MIL's DSG Golf (manual handbrake) and I cannot understand why anyone would prefer it to a manual for pretty much this reason. Any time you have to stop there are two options, sit there with your foot on the brake, go through the sequence of putting it in neutral, handbrake on, and then reversing the process to set off. Which seems straightforward, but there's interlocks between the gear lever, the button on the gear lever and the brake pedal. So it becomes far more complicated than actually just driving a manual! And if you do manage it, then it'll be the one time the hill-assist doesn't kick in when you take you foot off the brake.
It was great on the motorway, stick you foot down to overtake and it's down 4 gears and accelerating in the blink of an eye. Horrible around town unless you just sit there with your foot on the brake blinding everyone, if you resign yourself to that it's great. And horrible on narrow lanes, every time you try an ease on the throttle part way round a bend nothing happens (because it thinks you want to be coasting in 7th gear), so you press a bit more, now it's in 3rd and making an anti-social bid for the horizon, there is no middle ground where it just wafts between corners at a sensible pace. Sport mode is even worse, that just put it in 3rd and never shifted up after the last bend. I imagine it's what driving an 80's turbocharged sports car must have been like for the few moments before it deposited it's stock-broker owner into the nearest hedge.
When you put the car in park it jams a peg in the transmission. If you're on a slope then the car rolls onto that peg and it can be pretty hard to get out. That's why I always use handbrake and park, and why I don't rely on park at traffic lights.
When you put the car in park it jams a peg in the transmission.
That would presumably explain the sort of 'lurch within the suspension' you sometimes get when engaging P. So it properly jams the wheels? I used to see this happen in American films, and always wondered why they were so cackhanded at parking.
That would presumably explain the sort of 'lurch within the suspension' you sometimes get when engaging P. So it properly jams the wheels? I used to see this happen in American films, and always wondered why they were so cackhanded at parking.
Yeah, it will roll a little. Both handbrake and park here, belt and braces and all that.
If you're on a slope then the car rolls onto that peg and it can be pretty hard to get out.
I've got a video somewhere of a colleague trying to get a heavily laden test car out of P, from the olden days where they used bowden cables. There was enough flex in the system you could pull the lever all the way back to D and still nothing. We even had to defeat all the interlocks to see just how far you could go before it popped out. One foot in each footwell doing what equated to some sort of weightlifters squat...
The system was completely redesigned before launch!
Not really, handbrake is to hold the car, P is to a) disconnect the transmission from the engine and b) act as a back up system if the handbrake fails.Both handbrake and park here, belt and braces and all that.
Not really, handbrake is to hold the car, P is to a) disconnect the transmission from the engine and b) act as a back up system if the handbrake fails.
If my handbrake fails (the belt), the gearbox in P (the braces), stop my car rolling down the hill (my pants falling down) so it's exactly like belt and braces lol! 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 😉
But I get your point. I prefer to have all four wheels locked.
*laughs in 6MT*
I cannot for the life of me understand this shit. We even have a CVT Verso....with a handbrake. Why on earth you'd want anything else I cannot fathom. Good bloody luck when
A it goes wrong
B it does it wrong
By the way, NCAP is not going to give max scores to cars with touchscreen for basic functions any more. Seems like this should be next to get marked down.
Or maybe if you don't find it dazzlingly bright, you need to see an optician as your eyes must be somehow deficient & lacking in sensitivity?
Or maybe some people react differently to things?
When I’m stopped behind other vehicles, like at traffic lights, I have my foot on the brake pedal, as do all the cars in front, and I can’t say I’m bothered by the lights; however, if it’s going to be longer I use the handbrake and put the car in Park.
I’ve used many different automatic/electric brakes, and never really got comfortable with them, I much prefer my Ford’s system, a traditional mechanical handbrake with a semiautomatic ‘box, which has a hill-hold function - if I stop on a slope, I just take my foot off the brake.
Why on earth you'd want anything else I cannot fathom.
Well, lots of people have died when they don't engage the handbrake correctly and the car rolls off as they try to get out. My wife's aunt actually saw this happen and yes the driver (an old lady) died.
I live on a hill, and in the first few years I lived here I saw four cars disengage their handbrakes and roll down the hill. Electronic parking brakes (at least, the one I had on my Passat) cannot disengage spontaneously due to their design. So there's that too.
A Handbrake cannot disengage itself, you are effectively describing how the person was not able to control the vehicle. All they had to do was leave it in gear and turn the wheels to the kerb while parking.Then it would not have happened, no matter how poorly the handbrake was engaged.
Sometimes you just have to admit you should not be driving.
Probably the vehicle was in poor repair also.
Edit - yes this is a harsh take, but consider it
And be wary of dogs "chewing" through the handbrake cable 🤣
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2y17lpx70o
handbrakes can and do disengage. park up with the brakes hot ( drum) pull brake on. brakescool and thus shrink. shoes are alloy so shrink more than tbe drums. brake releases as shoes pull away from the drums
A Handbrake cannot disengage itself,They can and do. Less so these days with changes to the design of the ratchet. But they do still fail.
Hilarious and untrue. It would be a stonking fundamental flaw in the design. Also, geometry.
I'll leave it after this, you're welcome to show any examples of this actually happening that didn't result in lawsuit aimed at the manufacturer.
Edit -mert - I already covered poor maintenance.
I'm surprised no ones mentioned fly-off hand brakes yet.
If you've not had the pleasure, they're like a roller blind, you give it a tug upwards to release the ratchet. Except they're like a roller blind, you give it a tug upwards at just the wrong speed and the ratchet clicks back on, and on, and on, until the lights go red again. And each time you think you've got it and start lowering it to the floor, nope. The lever is designed to move freely back to the floor once engaged because it's on a ratchet.
theres a certain humour to arguing about vehicle design - to someone who's actively involved in vehicle design 🤣
You mean me? I am.
make of it what you will but I'm also laughing at the suggestion that handbrakes are infallible
They're not infallible, of course.
Anyway I am being very argumentative about something that isn't really important I suppose. Soz.
It's just, like, my opinion, man
electric car has a creep mode that moves it forwards/backwards as appropriate when you take the foot of the brake so it won't roll either.
An i3 doesn’t, only full one pedal driving, it comes to a complete stop and needs the accelerator to move. No different settings to choose and brilliantly simple to drive. Although I don’t think it ever holds the brakes as such, all done with the motor and it may roll on steep slopes (it’s been a while since I had mine 😞).
It has a park button that you press when you stop properly which I think from memory must have also put the handbrake on.
If the range works for you then I’d thoroughly recommend, I loved mine 🙂
EDIT: for the avoidance of doubt I’m not arguing with trail rat, just pointing out that one of the OP’s shortlist cars doesn’t act in the same way as loads of others do!
Our Volvo(auto,ice) has one, its fine but I prefer an old fashioned stick like the van has. However the auto handbrake feature is shite in ours, doesn't disengage smoothly and engages prematurely when you're trying to park, so we turn that off.
