If you ever saw the "Park" pawl thingy that you're relying on to keep your vehicle "parked" , you would use your parking brake everytime.
I've seen these fail multiple times in mostly high mileage vehicles, and one very low mileage fleet vehicle that rarely went more than a few hundred yards before being parked and then used again dozens of times a day. That pawl & teeth wear.
Everytime a shift from park into gear on a hill or slope increases that leverage and wear. I cringe when i hear a vehicle shift out of park on a slope and the pawl/tooth makes that familiar sound ...... You know what I'm talking about.
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Hate being that internet guy....., but not using a parking brake is very dangerous, not only to you but to your surroundings (people, cars, houses, trees, etc).
Just sayin' ...... Lol.
I will say this........I dont live in a state with hills.........none...Florida
I have not used a emergency brake in over 50 years of driving. Nobody I have ever rode with in my entire life puts the emergency brake on when they park. This must be something they must have taught millennials during high school drivers ed?
I have never seen it in my entire lifetime.
I have never had a transmission fail for not using one........never
Now I will say this..........If I were to ever live in San Francisco I would have one for parking on those streets!
Now its called the PARKING GEAR for a reason?
Otherwise why do all Auto manufacturers give us this so called PARK shown in the gear selector? Its called "P"... They should not include the gear in the transmission and only give us Neutral then we would all use the EMERGENCY BRAKE because it would be an emergency! I have never called this a PARKING BRAKE
So we have two different scenarios for this.
I prefer to use the PARKING GEAR when I park
You prefer to use the Emergency Brake when you park
A stroll thru a large parking lot to see how many people set the emergency brake when parking and I doubt I would see 1% of the those parking who would set their emergency brake.
Some new models are now using an power button for the Emergency Brake...which I suppose if you some anxiety over this then it would be good to use it.
But I doubt many people are standing on their emergency brake pedals when pulling into a parking lot.
I give you that San Francisco it would be a good idea....I have maybe parked on a hill a couple times in my life and used the what we all called the Emergency Brake, maybe a couple of times.
If you come to a COMPLETE stop before you select park you will NEVER have a fail....and I mean never. I have never broke the pawl ever in an automatic transmission. I have owned race cars with $7500 auto transmissions and have never broken a pawl. I have seen guys throw their transmissions in reverse at 150 MPH and not break anything except their ego and almost losing their race car. Talking to a few of my friends I asked them how many set their E brake when parking...none of them do except sometimes on a hill or they turn their tires into the curb even better.
Now go back to the 50's and you had a simple two speed transmission and yes they had a P on the selector. They also had a emergency brake that you would reach down and pull up with your arm and it would ratchet up thru some teeth...then you would turn it to get it to release and then on its own it would bang back to the dash....Nobody used them because of that and then the mechanical cables would rust and jamb it was over with, because if you did use it , it might not return and then you were in a real jamb.. I never seen my mom & dad at the time ever pull up on that lever and later never stepped down on the E brake pedal..People might say " Dont forget to set your "EMERGENCY BRAKE" when parking on a hill! "
So for now we can even call it the Auxiliary brake if you want to...
But I will never stand on that left pedal in order to park especially on flat land, and none of my friends do either.
signed: A VERY DANGEROUS GUY