Hill/handbrake assist. Is there any point in the electric handbrake button?

[Nobbyplopps]

I don’t have my MG4 yet, it’s arriving next month and I am very excited Now, am I being stupid?
If you press the break all the way down the handbrake automatically applies itself, you press the go peddle to disengage the handbrake and move off, right? If that’s the case, what’s the point in the electric handbreak button? Do people use it? Do people not use it? Do you have to press the handbrake button when you have finished driving? And yes I have never driven an electric car never mind an automatic car in my many years of driving lol.

 

[Rolfe]

brake

pedal

/pedant mode

 

[Rolfe]

I have to admit I only use the P setting, pressing the top of the selector wheel, and the auto-hold. I'm a bit hazy too about why we have that separate wee lever just for the brake.

Maybe someone will come on and enlighten us.

 

[meicd]

I never use it but my wife would rather turn the brake off when she start as it’s a little smoother.

 

[Rolfe]

How?

 

[siteguru]

Auto-hold keeps the brake lights on (as though you're pressing the brake pedal) - using the electronic handbrake lever doesn't. That's about it really in terms of effect.

 

[siteguru]

How?

When setting off downhill (for example), releasing the handbrake manually means the car can roll forward/drive away without the brakes "thunking".

 

[meicd]

How?

For some reason it doesn’t lunge of the drive so much. Maybe I’m a little more subtle with the power than she is.

 

[Nobbyplopps]

Auto-hold keeps the brake lights on (as though you're pressing the brake pedal) - using the electronic handbrake lever doesn't. That's about it really in terms of effect.

So really one does not necessarily need to use the handbrake lever lever?

 

[siteguru]

So really one does not necessarily need to use the handbrake lever ever?

No, unless you have some consideration for drivers behind you on dark, wet nights.

 

[Nobbyplopps]

No, unless you have some consideration for drivers behind you on dark, wet nights.

How much is “some?”

 

[PristDean]

I use it. I used it today when over at my Fathers house, his drive is on a slope. I pull forwards onto his drive, press park, exit the car and it holds.
When I enter the car again, I press the brake, engage reverse, then release the 'Hold' button and release the brake for a nice easy creep backwards.

 

[Nobbyplopps]

I use it. I used it today when over at my Fathers house, his drive is on a slope. I pull forwards onto his drive, press park, exit the car and it holds.
When I enter the car again, I press the brake, engage reverse, then release the 'Hold' button and release the brake for a nice easy creep backwards.

Ahhhhhh yes I can see why in some instances it might be useful

 

[tsedge]

Must admit, I almost never use it. Just auto hold and hit the button for P which puts on the hand brake automatically.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm with @tsedge. When I typed "how?" I meant, how do you release the handbrake. I have no idea.

I have never noticed any problem with a smooth getaway with either the P setting or the auto-hold. (Also, I have never been bothered by the brake lights of a car in front of me at the lights, and I'm a fanatical "turn off these bloody fog lights it's not foggy" person.)

 

[Nobbyplopps]

I'm with @tsedge. When I typed "how?" I meant, how do you release the handbrake. I have no idea.

I have never noticed any problem with a smooth getaway with either the P setting or the auto-hold. (Also, I have never been bothered by the brake lights of a car in front of me at the lights, and I'm a fanatical "turn off these bloody fog lights it's not foggy" person.)

Oh you are one of those people are you?

 

[Rolfe]

Not quite as bad as the guy on the M25 who kept flashing me the second we emerged from intermittent fog, even though there was another patch about 500 yards along the road...

 

[Nobbyplopps]

Not quite as bad as the guy on the M25 who kept flashing me the second we emerged from intermittent fog, even though there was another patch about 500 yards along the road...

I bet he went to sleep raging and having nightmares

 

[Rolfe]

Conversely, there's the evening I picked up my Peugeot GTi6. I left the XR2 with the dealer and drove off in the Peugeot, heading for a weekend at a science fiction convention somewhere in the Midlands. I really wasn't that familiar with all the controls, and there was this light symbol on the dashboard that I didn't understand. I drove all the way there, in the dark, and all the way home three days later, with that symbol illuminated. I only realised the next day that it was the fog lights, and how to turn them off.

Nobody flashed me the entire time.

 

[PristDean]

Ah, and sounds like you are also one of those people who attend bi-monthly science fiction conventions too.
'Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con'