Long stop in auto. Neutral? Park? Handbrake?

[TripleS]

Am I the only one here who dislikes the electronic parking brake?

You have a good point there, however, your comment about bump starting would not apply to an auto. IIAC, you should not attempt to bump start an auto, i'ts something to do with causing damage to the transmission. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, although I haven't encountered many of them, I dislike these newfangled parking brake systems. It just seems to me to be added complexity for no real benefit...and it may, in some situations, make life more difficult if the system fails. The old mechanical handbrake was perfectly satisfactory, less likely to give trouble, and cheaper to fix if it did.

[TripleS]

Am I the only one here who dislikes the electronic parking brake?

You have a good point there, however, your comment about bump starting would not apply to an auto. IIAC, you should not attempt to bump start an auto, i'ts something to do with causing damage to the transmission. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

This is correct for traditional auto boxes. DSG boxes would not be harmed but their electronically controlled clutches would make any attempt to bump start an exercise in futility.

Bump starting can also risk poisoning the catalyst (unless it starts on the first go), so you should not really bump start any, modern car if you can avoid it, and indeed you will find most handbooks warn against it. Personally I've ended up getting one of those battery pack starters.

The big problem with electronic handbrakes is that if they fail to release you cannot even tow the car and I understand it is difficult to even dismantle them at the roadside without the correct software to instruct the ECU to retract the pistons (assuming that even works).

I have to agree I am not a big fan of electronic handbrakes and prefer the manuals, but I they don't really bother me day to day.

That's interesting, what you say about bump starting being likely to poison the catalyst. I must admit I occasionally bump start our 406 HDi, not because I need to, but to save a bit of battery and starter motor activity. Maybe I should reconsider that, in the light of what you say.

Anyhow, cars (going back a while) that could be bump started safely were those Jaguars of the 1950s and 1960s that were fitted with the old Borg-Warner 'DG' transmission. There were no electronics involved, everything was mechanical/hydraulic, but a successful bump start needed a speed of about 35-40 mph to be achieved, because of the hyrdraulic pump mounted at the rear (the output end) of the transmission: lower speeds didn't produce sufficient pressure, apparently.

Anyhow, there was a story (supposedly true) about a chap with one such car needing a bump start, and he explained the speed requirement to another driver who had stopped to offer assistance. Very shortly afterwards, while expecting the other car to gently engage with his rear end (this was in an era when we had proper bumpers, not flimsy plastic) and push him along the road, he looked in his mirror and was horrified to see the good samaritan approaching at about 40 mph......

[TheInsanity1234]

No, the gear lever is on the centre console in the normal position. The handbrake is to your right between the driver's seat and the door. The way the handbrake works is also unusual in that the lever sits in its 'down' position whether the handbrake is applied or released. To release the handbrake you pull the lever up to the top of its travel to engage the mechanism before pressing in the button and lowering it again. Applying the handbrake is conventional until you release the button, when the lever detaches from the mechanism, and the lever drops down to the floor.

Ah, I know how it is, my mum once had a Fiat Multipla and the gear lever was in the dashboard, due to the chair between the driver's and passenger's side, and the handbrake was over where your handbrake was. I'm not sure if it was just a normal handbrake or if it worked in the same fashion as yours, but I know the handbrake was tucked alongside the chair, and the chair was quite tall, so the handbrake never got in your way when you get out.

[Kimosabe]

My Freelander 2 auto tends to creep if left in Drive while the engine is warming up, so if it's an extended stop, I apply the hand brake and put it in Neutral or Park. Leaving it in Drive is the preferred thing with Land Rover and my ex Rospa observer said it was also their's but it sometimes doesn't feel comfortable and my car doesn't have an automatically disengaging handbrake.

In the event of a rear-end shunt or emergency, the additonal unpreparedness ("...should be in control of their vehicle at all times...") of having to disengage a gearbox while in some wreckage or inadvertantly pressing the Accelerator pedal and driving into stationary traffic/ across a junction ahead due to the collision, is more than enough of a reason to win the the 'What if' game so many ADers like to play. So for me, I crawl to a stop before selecting neutral and I always watch the traffic approaching from the rear, while trying to time my stopping point with the arrival a vehicle a few places behind my own. This is something I have done for many years and I find it helps to slow traffic down which might otherwise like to drive too fast when approaching from the rear.