Electric parking brake
Haveing my drivers license for a year and 2 weeks now, I actually never learned to use the parking brake in an emergency.
I did my lessons and test in a Audi A3 with an electric parking brake and 6 speed manual transmission.
In case of break failure, I was tought to activate my hazards lights, getting to the farthest right lane if possible, quickly shift down, gear by gear, using the motor friction to slow down, pulling onto the side strip (where applicable) only once my speed was low enough that I could stop within visibility range.
If a turn I can't take was coming up I was supposed to stear into the side bariers or of the road where most safely.
The self-release feature of that Audi was actually quite handy. It basicly just released itself once you started driving, no matter if the street was even or steep, you started forward or backwards.
Made uphill starts pretty easy.
BTW, one of the worse things I had to do during my lessons: Parking my car backwards on a hill with my front facing downwards. Reversing hill up is hell on earth for me.
I am driving a somewhat old VW Golf IV 99-edition 5-speed manual (the old car of my mum) and from time to time my mums new Skoda Fabia Sport Version 6-speed manual.
Both have a manual parking break.
For parking on a manual, you are tought to engange the first gear on even roads and if you car is facing hill up or the reverse gear if you car is facing hill down. Then you engage the parking break, and only then you turn off the motor. Pull your key where applicable, and turn the stearing wheel until it locks.
For keyless ignitions, the stearing wheel usually locks automaticly.
But, quite honestly, with our TÜV system here in Germany, I rarely heared of any break failures.
Some verry steep Autobahnen however have lanes you can exit onto that lead into a steep hill to slow you down.
My mums Skoda has a distance control system with distance alarm and automatic break priming. A radar sensor checks for the distance to the car in front of you, shows a warning in the board computer display for driving to close, and if the car in front of you gets far to close or suddenly decelarates, it sounds an alarm and primes the breaks to apply the biggest possible breaking force as soon as possible.
I had an encounter with that while takeing a route around a traffic jam near Hamburg on the way back home from our holiday. A car in front of me suddenly pulled over into my lane a few meters from a red light and stopped. I was driving about 20km\h and was about 15m away. I was looking to the right at a trafic sign. As the alarm sounded, I just pushed the break and clutch padle all the way by reflex. The car came to a stop basicly immediatley.
These systems are avaible as self breaking systems as well, which can prevent collisions 100% independently up to a speed of 20 or 30km\h.
On the topic of touchscreens:
Some features are useless.
However, some basics are really nice on some touchscreens.
My mum has a fully speced entertainment system in her car, just without a build in navigation system.
Calling via bluetooth handsfree speakerphone is really easy. Hit the phone button and the picture of the contact you wanna call.
Choosing a different radio station is hard though as that menu has a scroll function that us somewhat touchy. That is better done via steering wheel remote and the board computer display.
And, most usefull: You can hookup your phone via USB and have Google Maps or simmilar show your navigation on the big main screen. No long looking at the small phone anymore.
thomasortega:
I'm verry soory to hear about your misfortune, I hope you get better soon.
I heared of absurdley many recals of a lot of Asian manufactured cars. My grandma drives a Hyundai ix20, which had a recall because of a parking break which could randomly stick while driving and thus cause accidents.
But with your case, and wihout suggesting that often at all, I think you'd have a verry good chance with a lawsuit against the manufacturer, the shop that executed the recall repair or the manufacturer of the airbags.
The airbag system is a cruical part of a cars safety system, and if the system clearly malfunctioned without any issue on your side, you most likely will have the right to a compensation for your pain and the loss of revenue by you.
I'm not one to talk bad about manufacturers much, but as soon as they compromise on saftey standards without any way of knowing about it, I get REALLY pissed of.
Edit: I just remembered why you never were supposed to use the parking break for eergency stops.
As that system usually uses a cable to activate the breaks, the ABS is bypassed, potentially blocking your cars wheels, thus makeing it possible to loose control and spin out.
Even if 3 of your wheels don't have any breaking power anymore, you can stop your care safely as the stability control and ABS can compensate for that. It will be a long breaking distance, but you'll stay in controll.[this post was last edited: 10/15/2017-03:32]
