Most New Cars Have Ditched Manual Handbrakes For Electric
With more and more new cars switching to electric parking brakes, you can’t help but wonder just how many vehicles are left on sale with a traditional manual handbrake.
Thanks to a study from CarGurus, we now know - in the UK, it’s a dismal 37 per cent of new models, and it seems likely that proportion will fall further. Dacia and Suzuki are the only mainstream manufacturers to have the old-fashioned arrangement on each of its models, while Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes and Porsche now only sell cars with either electronic or foot-operated parking brakes.
It’s not hard to see why: in a lot of ways, electronic brakes are superior. There’s less chance of making a mistake with one, as a kick-off - it’s either on or off. Engaging/disengaging takes minimal effort, and most systems will release automatically if you pull away without turning them off. Finally, there are packaging benefits - a little switch is much easier to accommodate, after all.
That’s all well and good, but those benefits will seem like a weak consolation prize the next time you fancy a cheeky handbrake turn in an empty gravel car park…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
How on earth are kids in the future supposed to attract the opposite sex?
Well there is “drift” mode
Lol! Agreed. My M140i has a traditional handbrake, but it’s quite weak really.
Perhaps it’s all a conspiracy aimed at population control. ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED
By driving Volvo’s of course
I can imagine them doing a handbrake turn using the electric handbrake
Ever seen a well executed handbrake turn?
lemme spin this button
I really like electric handbrakes, they make hill starts a lot easier. I just don’t like if it’s placed where a normal handbrake would not be, it should be in the center console and nowhere else.
rip, manual handbrake
The only positive about electric handbrakes is space and looks i guess. They arent emergency brakes anymore as you cant activate it while driving so if your foot brakes fail you cant stop using the EMERGENCY BRAKE. And if they fail ohhh boyy is it expensive.
And for everything repairwise they are annoying as hell. The car stands 1cm wrong for the lift? Oh, you have to connect the battery again (best experience in combination with automatic transmission and start-/stop-button)
Wrong, most cars with electric park brake have an emergency feature. My 2010 Vauxhall Astra does for example, hold the button and it pulls the brake
Electronic handbrakes are literally the biggest hassle possible for manual cars. People who learned to hill start with a handbrake can’t do it quickly anymore, because the electronic handbrake takes its time to disengage.
Manual cars should have manual handbrakes, or at least hill holders
Good point, many of my friends who use manual does not like hill holders
Did you see the Top Gear video of Chris Harris and Rory Reid trying to do a handbrake turn in a new Golf R? It’s heart breaking..
Who still has to hand brake hill start after learning how to drive? I grew up in a mountainous area and have done it only a handful of times in my younger years.
Newer cars have hill holders after you press the brake for 2 seconds
Solid point !
ah shit
Me rn:
Our car (Opel Zafira Tourer manual) has this problem with its handbrake. If you put the car in neutral and you pull the handbrake button, it won’t go into handbrake mode UNTIL you have closed the door. So that means you pull up at a spot, put on the handbrake, get out and slam the door as fast as you can.
Hate the electric version, why can’t people just press and pull a manual handbrake?
The sad thing is, you can get the zafira with a manual handbrake. Then you even get coin holders.
The peacock has its feathers, the young man has his handbrake. They do the same job.
Well what the hell do we do now?
We must find another way, luckily there’s still about a decade before young people can actually afford these new cars, so there’s time to figure out another way
Buy older cars
RIP easy way to drift
There’s still lift-off oversteer