[WildW]

Hi folks, I'm a new Scenic owner, just getting used to things. I was just wondering if anyone could give me any helpful tips for use of the Scenic's parking brake because, to be honest, it's somewhat less useful than a normal handbrake.

For instance, when I'm queueing for a junction that's on an incline, moving forward one car-length or so at a time every few seconds. Normally I'd catch the car on the handbrake just before starting to roll backwards, but now I either have to hold the car on the clutch, or apply foot brake, apply parking brake. . . in stop-start traffic its a bit of a pain. If only there were some other anti-roll-back method.

 

[costeau]

In driving school, I was taught to keep the clutch and foot brake down when stopping in start-stop traffic,
only using the parking brake on rare occasions to assist hill starts in the very steepest inclines.
(As I drive an automatic these days, it's just the foot brake.)

Regardless of electronic or manual parking brake, you actually put more wear on the parking brake wire by using it often in junctions on level ground and moderate inclines.
(Yes, the electronic parking brake actually tensions a wire in the same manner that a regular lever does.)

I don't want to sound patronizing, so even though what I'm about to say does sound so, my intention is only to get you to reflect over the mere fact:
There is a reason why it's called the "parking brake" - Regular use of it should only take place when parking.

EDIT - Added the following:
And keeping your feet on the pedals is really a matter of habit. Once you get used to it, it's second nature.

 

[WildW]

Well, the alternative to using the handbrake is to hold the car on a halfway-down clutch, which I thought was bad because it wears the clutch out, or to roll backwards while my foot moves from brake to accelerator and clutch finds biting point, and then start moving car forward while it is rolling backwards. . .which I also thought was bad.

What I did this morning was clutch-down + footbrake to stop completely, apply parking brake, drive forwards one car length, repeat 8 times until I get out of junction. This feels like the right way to do it because I don't want to apply parking brake while moving. The hill is steep enough that I'm likely to roll back and hit someone if I don't brake.

 

[costeau]

Well, the alternative to using the handbrake is to hold the car on a halfway-down clutch, which I thought was bad because it wears the clutch out, or to roll backwards while my foot moves from brake to accelerator and clutch finds biting point, and then start moving car forward while it is rolling backwards. . .which I also thought was bad.

What I did this morning was clutch-down + footbrake to stop completely, apply parking brake, drive forwards one car length, repeat 8 times until I get out of junction. This feels like the right way to do it because I don't want to apply parking brake while moving. The hill is steep enough that I'm likely to roll back and hit someone if I don't brake.

Okay. I might have misunderstood a little, then. My apologies for that.

If the hill isn't extremely steep, the wear isn't actually that bad with a slight back roll until the clutch bites,
as long as you don't rev the engine too high (between 1500 and 3000 RPM should do it) until you've let go of the clutch pedal.
Most modern clutches are made to handle it anyway (the point I forgot to make in my previous post).

So I'd still save the parking brake for the most extreme hills, if I were you.

 

[WildW]

Fair enough, I'll try it that way, hopefully I'll soon get better at it. I was driving an automatic the last few years until Tuesday

 

[costeau]

Once you do get back into the habit, I'd say you'd be all right, sunshine.

My main reason for driving an automatic, is that I live in Ireland, where the wheel is on the right hand side, just like the UK,
but I'm originally from Norway, where I grew up with the wheel on the left hand side.

Automatic transmission gives me one less thing to worry about when trying to keep the car on the correct side of the road,
whether I'm driving my own Laguna over here, or a rental car back in the old country.