My parents, both fit and strong, though of a late 1920s and 1930s vintage, cannot apply the handbrake of their Honda Jazz sufficiently hard to stop it rolling on steep hills. I just accompanied them to the local Honda garage where they bought the car approximately 18 months ago. This is the third time that the issue has been raised, i.e. at the first two services and today. The engineer said that it was within the normal tolerance and to prove it parked the car on a small incline. It was pointed out that this was not a hill of the type that you find in their locality so he performed a test against the engine. He applied the handbrake and then tried to set off in first gear and immediately stalled the engine with a judder. According to him this proved that the handbrake was working correctly. I commented that it was possible to stall an engine with the handbrake off.

When I tried the test with the handbrake on, the car moved off easily at less than 1500 rpm at which point he got a little irate and said that I hadn't done the test properly. He then changed tack and said that it required between 9 and 13 clicks for it to work properly. My mother could manage only 8. I'm almost 14 stone and do a lot of sport, and managed to get 9 with a lot of effort and by pulling full on achieved 10. There's no way that the target market of this type of small car will all have the strength to pull the handbrake on hard enough to hold it on a proper hill. The engineer cheerfully admitted that he had seen lots of customers with the same complaint and that it occurred when the Jazz got disc brakes on the rear wheels in place of drum brakes. I suggested looking at a similar secondhand Jazz and after some hesitation he agreed. The handbrake had a totally different feel and it was relatively easy to achieve the first 8 clicks.

He offered to have 'another look' at the car in the workshop, but warned my parents that by adjusting the handbrake the rear calipers might seize, and that this was an expensive job to fix (£350), clearly trying to put them off and implying that if anything subsequently went wrong with the rear callipers it was their own lookout. On pressing he said that they would look at the car again and ensure that there was no risk to the rear calipers seizing on, and that he would try and make the handbrake easier to operate effectively.

What are their options? I suggested that they let the garage have one more try but their confidence is clearly dented by the rather arrogant and condescending nature of the staff, and by the fact that this is the third request. The garage is clearly stating that the car is fit for purpose as it is, whilst also acknowledging that the car is not appropriate for my mother because of the strength required to use the handbrake properly. The garage is only looking at it as a gesture of goodwill, i.e. not under warranty.

On leaving the engineer said that he would deny admitting that there was a general fault based on the number of complaints that they'd received. My mother challenged him that the handbrake problem was not mentioned when they bought the car, even though it must have been known by the dealership to be a problem, because according to this engineer they received multiple complaints and queries on the changeover to all-round disc brakes. His response was that he had no involvement in the sales process.

Is it worth taking it up with Honda head office? Is it worth raising with VOSA? The last resort is to trade it in for something similar, e.g. Volkswagen Polo, but that seems crazy with what my parents consider to be a fairly new car. I note from your website that you warn readers of an earlier recall on Jazz handbrakes but don't appear to mention more recent ones, though there are various comments posted on several websites about new Honda Jazzes rolling away after being left with the handbrake on.