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I recently gave a team mate a lift to the rink, and discovered that the hand brake is on the passenger side of the central area, hence I was rubbing his leg whenever I needed to use the hand brake. Very embarrassing. Obviously VW have not bothered to adapt the hand brake position for a right hand drive car. Bizarre. And I've not heard anyone else mention this. Check the online reviews, and you'll see that it is like that in the review cars.
You'd think they would adapt it to the UK market, seems not, penny pinching I guess.
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I have come across this previously with LH drive model fitted for RH drive. Just laugh it off I suppose. At least you have the luxury of a proper hand operated parking brake!!
Cheers Concrete
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That’s the sort of thing I’ve noticed with Seats that we’ve owned. Flashing LED light to indicate car is locked located on passenger side door, bonnet release on passenger side as examples. I’ve always accepted it as Seats are cheaper VWs essentially. However, if I’m buying a full price VW (so to speak) I want a proper RHD car! That seems to me to be cheapskating of the highest order.
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All the Peugeots I have owned have had handbrakes dead centre. No problem :-)
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I recently gave a team mate a lift to the rink, and discovered that the hand brake is on the passenger side of the central area, hence I was rubbing his leg whenever I needed to use the hand brake. Very embarrassing.
Our Jazz has the handbrake over to the left but never found it an issue, even with larger passengers. Was your team mate "man-spreading"?! :-)
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But you haven't found the position of the handbrake a problem before now, after a year or so with the Polo?
My Octavias had the handbrake on the left of the console: if anything I preferred it that way if I was wearing a coat, as the coat didn't get in the way.
If Peugeots can oblige by having the handbrake centrally, why on earth can't they do something with the fusebox on RHD cars so that it doesn't take up half the glovebox?
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Company I worked for back in 84 I think gave us Golf,s as company cars, took it in for service and was given a Polo, the one with the flat back, driving back I nearly landed up on the Brook St roundabout at Brentwood, brakes barely existed. I was told it was because they had no brake servo on the RH drive car as it was in the way of the steering column etc. ...
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These foibles are sometimes down to penny-pinching (column stalks for indicators and wipers, etc.) and sometimes it's the physical impossibility of changing things over to RHD (bulkhead in the way for RHD wiper spindles). Not usually a problem for Japanese cars and earlier Korean ones based on Japanese designs, though with the onward march of globalisation there seems to be an LHD bias with cars nowadays.
The first MINI Countryman had the fuel filler on the left, so the half-door could only be fitted on the right (handy for the driver, less so for small rear passengers). The new model has the fuel filler on the right and the half door has been done away with!
The end-of-the-line Morris Marina/Ital was especially cursed with design idiocy, having inherited windscreen wipers and column stalks for the indicators and wipers set up for LHD, but now with the added panache (in high end models only!) of a Unipart radio mounted off centre and angled towards the passenger and a clock hidden behind the gear lever on the floor.
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If Peugeots can oblige by having the handbrake centrally, why on earth can't they do something with the fusebox on RHD cars so that it doesn't take up half the glovebox?
The answer must be to design everything dead centre. Three-person bench seat, driver in the middle ....
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Just imagine it - 'Are we nearly there' on one side, and 'Mind that pedestrian' on the other....
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I occasionally drive a Peugeot minibus with the handbrake on the right of the driver's seat. Amazingly difficult to remember - keep reaching to where it should be, then having to change hands and reach to where it really is!
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If Peugeots can oblige by having the handbrake centrally, why on earth can't they do something with the fusebox on RHD cars so that it doesn't take up half the glovebox?
The answer must be to design everything dead centre. Three-person bench seat, driver in the middle ....
Doesn't that mean the handbrake would be between the drivers legs - sounds "dangerous/painfull" ! ?
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But you haven't found the position of the handbrake a problem before now, after a year or so with the Polo?
This lad was not exactly lightweight ...
Perhaps the car has the brake handle on the driver's side (from the point of view of Europeans) to cope with Bavarian passengers?
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Another reason for having an electronic park brake then - easier to move a switch around than a mechanical linkage.
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Another reason for having an electronic park brake then - easier to move a switch around than a mechanical linkage.......
...and less likely to break. The clutch cable on our old Passat GL5 was a straight run for LHD, but had to go round a pulley for RHD, thus causing metal fatigue. One by one the wires of the cable would break, until......aaaagh...no clutch...requiring the new skill of clutchless driving without wrecking the gear-box!
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<<. One by one the wires of the cable would break, until......aaaagh...no clutch...requiring the new skill of clutchless driving without wrecking the gear-box! >>
I was driving SWMBO's Pug 205 Dturbo about 20 years ago, when the clutch cable broke on the long gentle hill down towards Hereford. There were no pulleys, but the cable ran between the engine and the bulkhead where there is very little space. When the RAC man finally appeared we raised the car enough for him to crimp the end of the cable back on, and it stayed that way until the car moved on quite some time later.
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I was loaned a 2018 Astra whilst my Golf was in for accident repairs, ( Golf has electronic brake), the Astra brake was so close to the drivers seat it was difficult to use. Golf is back now, what a lovely car in comparison with the Astra. ( not just the brake but general fit, finish and feel.)
Edited by lordwoody on 20/03/2019 at 15:16
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I was loaned a 2018 Astra whilst my Golf was in for accident repairs, ( Golf has electronic brake), the Astra brake was so close to the drivers seat it was difficult to use. Golf is back now, what a lovely car in comparison with the Astra. ( not just the brake but general fit, finish and feel.)
Rather like the Suzuki Celerio I had as a courtsey car whilst my Mazda3 got a new clutch - the handbrake was so low down that I had to lean over and reach down to use it. Very odd indeed.
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The obvious solution is is to have an electronic parking, save space and embarrassment.
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The obvious solution is is to have an electronic parking, save space and embarrassment.
But such devices are the work of the devil and a problem looking for a solution to that bo one asked.
Tbh I don't mind either. A conventional handbrake has its advantages but so does an electronic one, for instance elderly or disabled people might not have the strength to operate a handbreak effectively and it helps with packaging.
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Many on here would agree with you about electronic hand brakes being the work of the devil. I’ve had one and thought it did make a lot of sense from a packaging and ease of use POV.
Other than touching up your passenger and doing handbrake turns I’m not sure what advantages conventional handbrakes hold.
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Do 'electronic' handbrakes fail more or less often than brake cables?
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Not sure on reliability, but the big problem with electronic handbrakes is hill starts - in some cars the electronic handbrake won't release until you press the foot brake, but then you have to take your foot off the brake to press the throttle and the car rolls backwards.
Of course an automatic solves all these problems - you only need a handbrake when parking on steep hills.
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If you buy a car with an electronic parking brake and manual transmission, you need to be sure that it has hill-hold assistance (which is noirmally activated by the footbrake - well, it is on Audis anyway).
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It is on my Peugeot 308, Avant. I'm old-fashioned enough to stick to the brake-neutral-handbrake routine when sitting in traffic, and release the electronic brake manually when moving off (- trusting that that's long-term good practice...), and I find that the hill-hold feature works reassuringly well. Mind, the old mechanical handbrake was so much easier to use; and I never did roll back on hills!
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Hill hold isn’t exclusive to electronic brakes, we have 3 cars with mechanical hand brakes and all have hill hold.
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If you buy a car with an electronic parking brake and manual transmission, you need to be sure that it has hill-hold assistance (which is noirmally activated by the footbrake - well, it is on Audis anyway).
No, you don't.
Previous Avensis (2012) of mine had EPB & no hill-hold & was fine. My current Avensis (2017) has EPB & hill-hold - but I never use hill-hold.
Don't know if it is a Toyota-specific thing but there is a slight delay between operating the EPB switch & the actuator releasing the brake which is more than enough time to find the biting point & move off without rolling back.
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