Pooh Bear wrote:

> You *are* kidding right ? It's the handbrake btw. It has no relationship
> whatever to *emergencies*. It is used in normal driving and you'll fail your
> driving test if you don't use it correctly.

Mine is labelled as a parking brake, and I've never had to use mine
except when my master cylander died in a 20 year old car.

> > and I used to live there for 28 years of my life and 11 was driving. Also
> > most people do not really apply the emergency brake on a hill unless rather
> > steep,
>
> Utter nonsence !

Do your normal brakes not work? I've taken my Honda Civic on almost
any type of road (or not-a-road) that you can find, and never once have
felt even the slightest urge to use my parking brake while moving.

> > as we have nearly all master moving off the help by knowing when the
> > clutch bite point.
>
> How often do you have your clutch plate replaced doing that ? Holding a car on
> the clutch on a hill for any length of time instead of applying the handbrake is
> plain berserk.

I have a slushbox. I take my foot off the gas going downhill, it goes
the same speed I was going and my transmission feels brand new after
100,000 miles. Yeah, steep hills take a tiny bit of brakes, but even
the steepest hills I find in the US never require my parking brake to
get down.

Hell, even with a pickup I never had to use my parking brake, even
off-roading. The brakes worked great till Evans Tires ****ed them up.
(Evans causing my truck to get totalled is another story though.)

Dave