The car part that's almost extinct - just 8% of new models have it

[red750]

Just 8% of new models in showrooms today have this once omnipresent feature
A once omnipresent car component that millions of drivers on the road have learned to use and grown to love is nearing extinction, according to a new report.

 

Just one out of 42 new cars launched in the last 12 months has the feature - and fewer than one in ten models in showrooms today have one, despite the item formerly being a staple of every interior.

 

The part in question is the manual handbrake, which is rapidly becoming less popular in new models as manufacturers make electronic parking brakes the norm.

 

Online car sales platform CarGurus carried out analysis and found just 49 out of the 587 different passenger cars on sale in dealers today are fitted with the 'analogue option' of a levered handbrake.

 

This means buyers who want one in their next motor can only choose from 8 per cent of the market.

 

But can you guess which car - from a firm UK favourite brand - is the only 2024 newcomer to have a manual handbrake installed?

 

Dacia, the budget-friendly manufacturer, is the one car maker to release a new vehicle in the last 12 months with a manual handbrake.

 

Its £14,995 Dacia Spring EV - the cheapest electric car on sale in the UK - has arrived on our shores with both a market-leading price and a levered handbrake.

 

While it might not be a surprise to learn that Dacia has retained the old-hat feature - likely due to the lower cost of fitting one over an electronic parking brake - the decision does make the Spring an outlier in the EV segment.

 

Almost all new electric vehicles come with an electronic parking brake, which is often the default choice for the latest cars with automatic gearboxes or single-speed transmission, as is the convention for battery-powered cars.

 

Currently, four in five (80 per cent) of models in Dacia's product range can be ordered with a manual handbrake.

 

However, the Romanian brand is very much the exception to the rule when it comes to retaining this old-fashioned component.

 

This is especially the case after the discontinuation of a number of long-running models in the last 12 months, all of which had manual handbrakes.

 

Read more here

[facthunter]

Handbrakes are a fairly high maintenance item. .  Nev

[willedoo]

I've never driven a car with an electronic one. Are they better or worse for handbrake starts on slopes?

[spacesailor]

Yes I have seen that ' handbrake ' demise .

The first time I sat in the neighbours Tesla.  I asked " where's the handbrake " .

It has to be better than Holden's handbrake , operated by your foot !. With it's twist release handle .

Four pedals on their manual cars . ( yes I drove one ).

spacesailor

[spacesailor]

The new cars are ' disc ' & automatically adjusted .

No idea what ' digital ' cars use . rotors or drums .

But the BMW ix . I like , has blue callipers. 

(  the Pajero has drum & disk )

spacesailor

 

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I thought it was going to be the CD player, my car has one.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I think for everyday users, they are fine. How many people drive a manual these days  and how many times does one apply the handbrake while the car is in motion?

[red750]

14 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

How many people drive a manual these days 

I do.

[Jerry_Atrick]

So do I..  but how many do? 

 

My point is most people only use handbrakes when parking or in a manual, for a hill start.

 

For the latter, an electronic hand brake is better anyway.. for the former, there's no real difference. 

 

[onetrack]

I thought for sure, the item would be an ashtray!

 

I've still got a manual vehicle with a regular cable operated handbrake between the seats. It's simple and gives no trouble. Stepdaughters Subaru's (Outback previously, now a Forrester) have electronic handbrakes.

I don't like them, too much potential for electrical problems, and they're basically a cost-saving idea.

[red750]

I use the handbrake at every lightnstop. If I just gey stopped, first car in the line, I can put it in neutral and take my feet off the pedals. Get ready when the light on the other street turns amber, or the right turn arrow turns amber. (They get first go.)

 

The part I want removed is the one that turns traffic lights red when I'm 30 metres short of them.

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

how many times does one apply the handbrake while the car is in motion

That hand operated brake was once called an emergency brake for use if the service brake system failed. Probably not so important before hydraulic brakes became the norm.

 

Also, you can't do handbrake turns without a manually operated handbrake.

[kgwilson]

My MG4 is the first car I have had without a conventional handbrake. It took a bit of getting used to. The rotary gear selector is D N & R & pressing it in the middle selects the parking brake. It is all automatic for hills etc & has an auto hold process when at traffic lights. Just tap the foot brake a bit harder when you stop & it puts the parking brake on & the brake light stays on then just use the accelerator to move off. Hill starts are exactly the same. In one pedal drive mode you don't need to touch the brake pedal at all. The car just comes to a complete stop & the park brake is automatically applied. It also has an emergency stop 1 or 2 finger operated brake lever right next to the rotary selector which is also electronic but uses an independent system & can be held on manually if required. I have only used this once to see how it worked. All very weird till you get used to it but I wouldn't go back to the old manual handbrake now.

[willedoo]

The only real test I had to get my driver's license at age 17 was to do a handbrake start in our old AA 160 International body truck. The only sloping ground around was the crossing over the railway line so the local copper got me to pull up on the approach to the railway line and then take off again. I had a Commer semi lined up to get my articulated license but he was happy enough with me verbally verifying I'd driven it. In those days the cops knew all us farm kids had been driving everything from the age our feet could reach the pedals. The drive in the truck got me a car, body truck, semi trailer, tractor and motorcycle license but he wouldn't give it to me until he saw me ride my old AJS 500. I went home and rode the bike back into town. He must have heard me coming as when I rode around the corner he was standing there with the license and handed it to me. Different days back then.

[onetrack]

I was driving to work on farms full time, from the farmhouse we were renting, from when I was just over 16. When I was 17, the brother took me into town, where the crusty old Sgt (Anthony Westerside) took me through three traffic knowledge questions (I got 2 of them wrong!), and he then took me for a drive around town, in the EH Holden ute - and through the only stop sign in town! I knew enough to stop completely at the stop sign.

 

When we got back to the cop shop, he just said, "You've been driving for a while, haven't you?". I replied "Yes", not sure if he'd meant I was showing some modest driving skills for my age - or if he'd seen or heard of me driving around the Shire! Small towns generate a lot of small talk! But he said no more, and wrote out my licence.

At 18 I started driving our IH R190 prime mover and low loader around, hauling our D6C dozer around the local area - and you weren't supposed to be driving a truck until you were 20! The day I turned 20, I went and got my truck endorsement.

[nomadpete]

Yeah, in the good old days, individuality and creativity was acceptable.  When I learned to drive (the process has only taken 65 years so far), you could develop your own bad habits. I was a city boy so my skills were learned in Sydney traffic, starting out unlicenced in a unregistered Lloyd Hartnett.

 

Motor cycle licence? - pay $15 at MRD, and off you go. Still alive after 3 months? Return to MRD and collect your licence.

 

These days a learner MUST suffer 100 hours of logged under tuition from mum or dad. It takes that long to embed all mum and dad's bad habits.

 

I'm proud to say I got my own bad habits my own way.

[red750]

Dad gave me a couple of lessons, then I took lessons through a driving school. I gave my 3 kids a few lessons (before the 100 hoour logbook rule came in) and they all finished off with a driving school to prepare for the licence test.

[spacesailor]

I taught my grandies on a three speed "Victor " lawn mower.

They all passed first time .

I told them . Your skill means nothing.  Just please the examiner.

" Yes sir no sir " .

A rider I taught . Fell off his bike !, three times on his test , and passed . ( 50s ).

spacesailor

 

 

 

Edited November 26 by spacesailor

[willedoo]

10 hours ago, onetrack said:

At 18 I started driving our IH R190 prime mover and low loader around, hauling our D6C dozer around the local area - and you weren't supposed to be driving a truck until you were 20! The day I turned 20, I went and got my truck endorsement.

Different laws. I don't know about these days but in my day you could get your articulated license at 17 in Queensland. I suppose these days a semi trailer with P plates would look a bit odd. I had a full time job driving a semi up and own the highway carting general freight at age 18. I've never liked the concept of youth wages. When I started work it didn't matter if you were 16 or 17, if you did a man's work you got a man's pay. Even when I was 15 and working in the school holidays I always got an adult's pay. That was mainly farm work driving tractors and harvesters.

[onetrack]

Here in the West, we've always been pretty conservative about age requirements for driving. I can recall a lot of East-West operators who wouldn't employ East-West drivers until they were aged 25.

It was all about maturity and responsibility when you're in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of truck and trailers, and when also a long way from home, and things are going pear-shaped, and mature decisions have to be made.

[pmccarthy]

Same argument goes against 22 year old flying instructors.

[facthunter]

They start at "C" and move up. IF you want to learn fast become an Instructor. The CFI is the experienced one.   Nev

[spacesailor]

Those ' farm kids ' have been " flying " at 12 years of age .

So they said .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

On what? Airborne dirt bikes??

[willedoo]

I used to try to get the old Super 70 Chamberlain flying but it never quite took off. It used to go faster than the front end steering could handle. The later ones with the Perkins could go as well, I think it was all in the gearing.