Originally Posted by danant
Always hand brake on and in gear. Never know. My friend has a 55 Vectra and has had bother with using just the hand brake. Car rolled off their drive during (luckily) the night. She was told by the mechanic that they've had a few problems with this but Vauxhall / Dealer refused said no prob.
An old but true story here.
A friend had a newish Cavalier back in the early 90's. His drive had a steep slope leading down to the garage so he always drove the car on to the drive front end first and left it in reverse, handbrake on or off I either don't know or can't remember. ( Sure that brain cells leak out of my ears when I'm sleeping. ) Anyway he was working in his garage one evening with the doors closed when he heard the car start up and immediately drive off, closely followed by a bang. Thinking that Mrs M had driven the car and run into something he went out for a look. The car had started itself up and reversed off the drive, over the road and into a concrete fence post.
There followed months of hassle with insurance and Vauxhall who finally admitted to a " known " problem with the wiring and, eventually, they footed all the bills for the bodywork, car wiring mod and the council owned fence post.
Does this cautionary tale change anyones mind on their procedure ?
Not me and although I may yet regret it I usually park with just the car in gear and handbrake off. ( C'mon, I live in Lincolnshire and have very bad memories of fixing, or trying to, Sud and Alfetta handbrakes. ) In circumstances unusual to me I occasionally do use the handbrake in the GTV and am always surprised that it actually works, unlike the older Alfas I've owned !
