Foot brake- v- hand brake

[thedaras]

Has anyne on AAM had experience driving a car that has no "hand" brake,but has a "foot" brake instead?
If so what are your experiences of using the foot brake?
Do you find it difficult to handle on a hill?or when you need to use it more than once in quick sucession?
Or when parking ,do you find you have less control,when trying to get into a tight space?

 

[iarann]

I drove 3 different cars in the US and all had foot brakes but all were Automatic as well. It does take a bit to get used to. I cant say I had and problems with hill starts the automatics handled the hills very well (and San Francisco has serious hills). With an automatic you are either accellerating or braking so one foot does the job.

I have also driven a VW Passett here & they have an electronic brake, you press a button to put the brake on. When stop/start on a hill the car will auto hold the brake for a few seconds after you take foot off the normal foot brake so it does the work for you. It also auto releases the brake if you drive off so you dont have to worry about that and it puts the brake on full each time you press the button so no worries about not pulling hand brake enough.

So try it, it works, but I did find it takes a while to get used to and you will keep dropping your hand to find the hand brake.

If you mention the make/model others may give a specific response to experience.

 

[sustanon]

My Subaru Legacy has a hill start assist function, automatic CVT transmission, no problems.

 

[onq]

Has anyne on AAM had experience driving a car that has no "hand" brake,but has a "foot" brake instead?
If so what are your experiences of using the foot brake?
Do you find it difficult to handle on a hill?or when you need to use it more than once in quick sucession?
Or when parking ,do you find you have less control,when trying to get into a tight space?

If by foot brake you mean foot-operate Parking Brake, then yes.

I once test drove a C-class Mercedes with gear shift as opposed to an automatic transmission and it was not a great experience.
The difficulty was with both the deployment and the relatively sudden hand-pull release.

I have also driven an E-Class automatic Mercedes - same foot-operated brake system, no problems at all.
Once you're in "D" of "Drive" the powertrain exerts a gentler pressure against a hills incline for example and this normally balances the car to allow you to move off.
Then - freed of the need to work the foot-operated clutch - you can hold the car with the ordinary foot brake as you release the parking brake and move off by releasing it gently and easing on the throttle.

The key to using the foot operated parking brake easily is having the automatic gearbox.
Balancing brake and throttle can take a bit of getting used to but it gives you very fine control.
It actually gives more control that a gearbox with foot operated clutch in that you're already on the brake.


ONQ.