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Automotive News & Views Buying American Cars What Does It Mean?
7263 messages, Last post on May 27, 2009 at 4:31 AM
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With parts coming from everywhere, does "Buying American" have much meaning anymore? Is quality and price the bottom line?
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 24, 2008 6:25 am) Once asked a MB dealer why big Mercs were fitted with foot-operated parking brakes, (when they were). "Well, they're designed for the USA market. Doughnut in one hand, coffee cup in the other; how else are they going to put the parking brake on ?" True story. Remember being a passenger in a big Citroen, (maybe a CX or similar), manual transmission, so 3-pedals - plus a foot-operated parking brake. Hmmm.....4 pedals and just 2 feet. Great fun on hill starts. I'll stick to handbrakes, thank you very much. |
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Replying to: alltorque (Nov 24, 2008 7:14 am) While I agree with your point, I've owned many manual transmission vehicles and have never needed/used a parking brake to help me on a hill. I prefer to scare the hell out of the person behind me that pulled up to close:)
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Replying to: alltorque (Nov 24, 2008 7:14 am) I think the foot brake might be best in a situation where you need to do one panic stop. A situation where the prime goal is to simply bring the car to a complete stop as quickly as possible. But in other situations where you have to regularly apply and release the brake, I think a handbrake would be easier. Easier to pull the brake with your hand and apply just the pressure you need, and then either press the button or twist the handle to release. With a foot brake, once the thing's activated, you have to use your hand to pull the release, a much clunkier operation than using a handbrake. I drove my grandmother's '85 LeSabre about 9 miles with no brakes once, and stopping was a bit of a pain. I tried to use the emergency brake as little as possible, because it was foot operated. Instead I'd just try to time the lights, plan my stops as far ahead as possible, keep plenty of distance from the cars in front of me, downshif frequently, etc. It wasn't too hard to do, but still a bit of a pain with the foot brake. A few years before that, I did the same thing with a '67 Chrysler Newport with no brakes. However, it had a hand brake, which made stopping a lot more convenient...much easier to apply just the pressure I needed, and then just twist to release.
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Replying to: dieselone (Nov 24, 2008 7:24 am) I don't much care where the parking brake is as long as they're not hiding it someplace. The current fleet has three between the seats and one on the floor. once owned a car that had a long pull handle over on the left under the dash. |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 24, 2008 7:36 am)
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 24, 2008 7:40 am) Yeah, that's where Mopar put their handbrakes. My Darts and the DeSoto were the same way, only the DeSoto's is a big chrome thing just waiting to impale your knee if you slide up into it for any reason...which might just be why they don't put handbrakes under the dash anymore! I don't have a problem with the handbrake being on the transmission hump. After all, chances are the car has a console and floor shifter there, anyway. Now with a bench seat car, I imagine a foot brake would be mandatory, but I don't see a problem with a handbrake on a car with bucket seats and a console.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 24, 2008 7:45 am) Handbrakes are much easier to use when you are doing a 180 power slide into a snow covered parking space. We had this discussion months ago over in The Future Of The Manual Transmission.  Future headline? (Swap "Yugo" for "Chevy", "Ford" or "Dodge") R.I.P. The last Yugo rolls off the assembly line 
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Replying to: dieselone (Nov 24, 2008 7:24 am) feathering the gas and clutch is good fun only for about 5 minutes, plus your clutch doesn't like you doing it.
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Replying to: nwng (Nov 24, 2008 8:10 am) I've always been able to move my feet fast enough from the brake to the gas and go. I don't live in a hilly area, but I have used a manual trans to pull boats out of a lake on a ramp with over a 25+ degree slope. If you move your feet fast enough and know what you're doing, the vehicle won't roll back at all. Semi drivers go through the same thing, they don't have a parking brake that can be used to hold a hill, then immediately release. When I had my Jetta TDI, that little diesel had so much torque at idle I could put the front tire against a curb, slowly let the clutch out and it would climb the curb w/o having to touch the gas pedal. In my neighborhood (wouldn't do this in traffic of course), I could start in first and work my way through every gear ending up in 5th w/o ever touching the gas pedal. Between the diesel torque and quick idle speed control it was easy to do. |
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 24, 2008 6:17 am) |
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