Electronic Parking Brake in Golf 7

[phaeton]

Negatives
No more handbrake turns for those that buy the performance versions.
Car parking facing downhill and taking off again is known to be difficult with EPB.

Positives
Ease of use round town & hill starts.
More space available where handbrake would have been.

[ralp2dam]

I think it's a great idea. I have the electronic handbrake and yet to have a problem.

[DoggieHowser]

For city driving, the electronic brake on my Tiguan is great, but it does feel odd at first. And it does sometimes get tripped up when I'm backing up over a steep driveway and hit the brakes. There's a manual override but have its not intuitive to disengage it at times.

Having said that, I now forget to use the handbrake on the Golf.

I've only used a handbrake turn once on my old Evo when I was getting some practice from a motorcross training session. But seems odd even the Boxster has gone this way

[raygti]

Wasn't the whole point of a handbrake was so that if your brakes fail you would have a mechanical back up ?? I think it is a stupid idea !

Step backwards in that regards .... In regards to space, how much room are you using near the handbrake ???

Hypothetical situation: cars brakes fails and loss of electronic power ... What happens ? Are there any fail safes ? This whole adaptive cruise stuff etc is just making us lazy as drivers in general. Lane changing feature is a good one though !
I've yet to see a computer that has not failed yet .

[NCGR1]

Wasn't the whole point of a handbrake was so that if your brakes fail you would have a mechanical back up ?? I think it is a stupid idea ! ....Hypothetical situation: cars brakes fails and loss of electronic power ... What happens ? Are there any fail safes ? ....

Suggest to me what situation would make the split service brakes fail. There are essentially two parallel systems. How would you make both fail at the same time?

Also, if the e-brake system was not fail-safe for the things it is used for, it wouldn't be in the vehicle.

[raygti]

Suggest to me what situation would make the split service brakes fail. There are essentially two parallel systems. How would you make both fail at the same time?

Also, if the e-brake system was not fail-safe for the things it is used for, it wouldn't be in the vehicle.

there have already been situations where the hand brake has been stuck or not disengaging..

i guess a situation would be if the car lost electric power suddenly , how would you use the emergency brake for a controlled stop....

more sh.t to go wrong ...

i also dont like push start buttons , just gimmicky. have a toyota with it ...

every man to their own i suppose

[wai]

I believe the electronic brake is a major backward step. When I looked at buying my Caddy Maxi Life, the lack of a standard hand operated hand brake was an absolute deal breaker. My brother has a Honda CRV with another absurdity of a foot operated parking brake, and you cannot use it for anything other than parking. It is just as bad as an electronic brake. Even an umbrella handle type handbrake is better. I learned to drive in an XM Falcon that has one and you can modulate them quite well.

I have mentioned in other postings the issue where there is a delay between releasing the footbrake and the engaging of the reverse clutch in a DSG. Yes, the only way to work around this and not run into a car when parked facing downhill is to have a handbrake you can modulate. At the very least, the transmission should be allowed to engage the clutch before the electronic brake can be released. Chances are this is not the case as I know someone with a new Passat which has an electronic brake and he has a lot of problems as the DSG will not let the clutch engage until the electronic brake is released. This then sees a delay of almost 1 second before the clutch engages and launches you backwards.

The reason for this is to reduce weight, and VW are going on about how the Mk 7 is bigger but lighter. It is easy to reduce weight, but you still need functionality.

I'd love to see a VW executive use their personal car with one of these try and reverse park up a hill and then try and get out of a parking space when facing downhill.

[Ryan_R]

The press release says it's supposed to be better/easier for hill starts but I'm not sold on it. I had a look in my car and the handbrake doesn't seem to be talking up any significant space (compared to the Mk7 interior photos). Fortunately I read the EPB is an option so hopefully those of us who don't want it can say no to it.

[iampivot]

What happens if you're parked on a hill and the battery runs out. Will it just refuse to disengage?

[buzuki]

Hopefully they added the feature that when a certain load is applied to the engine the brakes auto release. So you can have the EPB on then apply throttle and once a certain load is reached (not high) the EPB will auto release.