Duggie your making me cry? Electronic hand brake plus Auto-Hold was a must on my short list last year and was told without doubt that the car I ordered had it but it turned out it didn’t, long story. It’s something I can get by without but it really is God sent in the VAG cars and my last car with EHB was a VW Golf and in the 4 years I drove that car I must of only ever touched the handbrake 10 times if that. Next time around I will just refuse the car if they pull that stroke again but to be honest I’m not 100% sure the dealer simply did not know that the MY19 model I should have had with EHB was dropped from KIA’s line up because of WLTP so I had a MY 18 model delivered instead that never ever had EHB but that’s another long story. I’ve got used to the old twentieth century handbrake technology again now but I still curse every now and again having no use of left hand and having to reach over to release that massive lever thing.
If you drive an automatic, you don’t really need a handbrake at all. Putting the lever in park will lock the transmission and you won’t be going anywhere. I’ve driven auto’s pretty much exclusively for over 20 years and the only time I’ve ever used mine is when changing wheels or during an MOT.
Hi DougieB
I’ve only driven automatics since becoming disabled and never ever paid any attentions to auto’s but I always thought, may be wrongly, that the “P” parking gear put a lot of stress on the mechanics of the gear box especially on steep hills however reading up on this just today after this thread it seems most folk use the “P” while waiting at lights or in stop go creeping tailbacks.
Still have to reach over for the gear lever though and like I said I could jump in the old VW, drive a hundred miles in heavy traffic and not touch gear lever or EHB when used with Stop/Start, can’t say that with the bog standard brake but if the wait in traffic is to long I slip the lever into neutral while holding on footbrake to save wear and tear on the double clutches even though its not my car and needn’t worry about repair cost, but then, may be I’m just getting the mechanics of DSG boxes wrong.