Can I trust electric parking brakes?

[rustic]

maybe best switch off an d put in gear, if thats allowed

That's what I thought too...:thumb2

Anyway, we test drove the C4 Picasso, very nice with all the toys, BUT we took the car home to put it in the garage as part of the test drive, the young lady salesman had never been on such a test drive before...:augie

So... it wouldn't fit, so we closed the mirrors in, wrestled with the electric handbrake, which was a pain, as we only wanted to allow the car to roll back a few feet so I could aim at the gap....
Eventually in.

BUT... when in the garage, with the mirrors folded you can't see behind to reverse out... Sometimes we put the car away several times a day... So the C4 Picasso is a no no. If the garage was wider and the surface flat, even an automatic would have been fine.

I tried to negotiate more off the price as I wanted to pocket at least £500 off their best offer, to cover the potential repair to the hand brake in 5 years time...:augie
For some reason they said No, they said they were only making £45 on the sale as it is... yeah right...:doh Sorry walk away time. I half expected the sales manager to chase after me..
When it was a time share meeting in Tenerife they did....:doh:doh We only went for the free alcohol...:augie
With time share we made it clear at the start, we won't make a decision on it TODAY, we'll sleep on it... Guess what.. they wanted us to sign up there and then, the sales manager came down, then the sales director, and they all why can't you sign now, that's when we told them again... we always sleep on an offer.. They would NOT allow us to take the unsigned paperwork away to consider it... hmmm...enough said. Well we said, we'll have our bottle of whisky now and our free taxi back to the resort.... Sorted...:thumb2

So getting back to the electric handbrake...
So, their latest car, the new cactus has ... a mechanical handbrake.:nenau
The new Astras have dropped the electric handbrake in favour for the mechanical type.:nenau

Hmm I wonder why.

Rustic

 

[micktheshed]

That's what I thought too...:thumb2


So getting back to the electric handbrake...
So, their latest car, the new cactus has ... a mechanical handbrake.:nenau
The new Astras have dropped the electric handbrake in favour for the mechanical type.:nenau

Hmm I wonder why.

Rustic

'Cause they're no good LOL.
I consider that to be good news having had 5 Astras and soon to be looking for another.

 

[micktheshed]

Just come across post entitled 'suicide electric hand brake' on Vauxhall owners website. Thought it might be of interest/amusement so the jist of it is as follows:

Electric hand brake applied itself, occasionaly, at speads of 15 mph + with frighteing reults. This happened on several differant cars/models & proved impossible for even Vauxhalls main diagnostic centre to pin down. Usual changing of components & extensive testing all to no avail. The owners insisted that it continued to happen..............untill some-one repositioned their new cardbord air freshener from the gear lever to the rear-view mirror. Instant cure!

Apparently the air freshener jammed under the handbrake button & activated it when the gear lever was in just the right position.

Thought for the day; 'a smelly car is a safe car' LOL. Well that's my excuse for not cleaning it more than once a year now validted.