"Michael Chare" wrote in message
...
I recently hire a VW Golf. It had an automatic transmission and an
automatic hand brake. The instruction manual was in French which did not
help matters.

When the car was on the flat the automatic hand brake was not much of a
problem except that it occasionally came on when not needed, and had to be
released manually so that the car would roll forward when in drive (or
reverse) without touching the accelerator peddle.

What was much more hazardous was trying to reverse the car a few inches up
a steep hill as you might need to do to park.

Starting with the handbrake on the accelerator had to be pressed quite
hard before the brake released and the car went backwards, making me think
that if anything was close behind, I might have shot into it.

I did try putting the car in reverse, holding it on the foot brake and
then pressing the accelerator. This did not work as the engine computer
had obviously told the engine not to rev up.

Anyone had more success with these devices?

These automatic parking brakes and automatic clutches sound a right pain in
the neck. What's wrong with a proper mechanically-operated handbrake that
you have complete control over, together with a mechanically operated clutch
that can be fed in gradually while the engine is idling - always assuming
that you have a diesel engine so the engine will pull even at idling speed
without you having to rev the engine. Even if I had a VW DSG gearbox, which
sounds like a fantastic piece of kit for matching matching engine and road
speed to give you perfectly smooth gearchanges, I'd still want an manual
clutch pedal for use solely when setting off from rest or when manoeuvring
and needed finer control.

Another rather silly feature was the door mirror which I lowered to see
the rear of the car as I parked. When I then put the car in gear the
mirror promptly moved back to where it was before.

We've got that on our Honda, together with a reversing camera, and both are
worth their weight in gold. The auto-adjusting door mirrors are fantastic:
it saves having to pause for ages, out in the middle of the road while I
adjust the mirror manually (and the motor moves so slowly) so I can see the
kerb that I need to line my nearside back wheel up with, between the drive
and lawn. It's something my Peugeot doesn't have so I was delighted that the
Honda does. It's a shame that there isn't manual override to keep mirror and
camera in reversing position for a few seconds while you go into first to
reposition slightly before reversing again.

We had to read the instruction manual to find out how to open the boot!
You have to press the top of the VW sign on the back of the car if you
don't want to use the remote key.

Ah yes. It took me a while to work that out when I drove a VW. I think you
have to use it every time you open the boot (even with central locking)
because central locking just allows the boot to open but you still need to
unlatch it with the badge in exactly the same way as you'd still need to
lift a conventional lever on a boot release. Or does the central locking
also release the boot lid so it pops up a few inches, or even raise the
tailgate to full height as the top-of-the-range Honda CR-V does?

Another problem was lowering the back seats. I had to pull some strap, at
the bottom of the seat back. This released the seat back. The seat was
spring loaded, so it came forward and hit me on the side of the head.

Same with our Honda. I still look for a lever on top of the seat back and
forget that it's a pull-tab below the seat base that starts the coordinated
sequence of raising seat base, lowering headrest and then tipping seat back
forwards. Not sure how similar this is to the VW mechanism.

The biggest mystery was when I had to drive my boss's car on business and
couldn't even work out how to get it into (or out of) reverse, which a hasty
mobile phone call from the car park resolved: it was a combination of
pushing the gear knob inwards (rather than lifting a collar or pulling the
knob outwards) and starting the engine: there was an interlock which
wouldn't allow the lever to move, even with the clutch pressed, when the
engine wasn't running.