On Monday, 7 June 2021 at 17:29:54 UTC+1, R D S wrote:
On 07/06/2021 13:36, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Is it a torque converter transmission?
I believe so. I'll be buying pads and discs more regularly then.
I have a (annoying apparently to my passengers, but that's their problem
) habit when in traffic in my manual of using the gearbox to slow
down and applying the handbrake to come to a standstill.
Saves constantly shifting feet.
My auto has a near conventional friction clutch - no torque converter. And
if you leave it in drive with the handbrake on, it tries to creep against
it. Which to me, means unnecessary wear. Footbrake on when stopped
disengages the clutch. But of course means the stoplights are on. So I
just plonk mine in park at traffic lights, etc.
I don't like the sort of loose rock you seem to get in park but as you
say with the handbrake on in drive there's a bit of lurch.

So i've been knocking it into neutral and putting the handbrake on.

This has a stupid push-button 'hand'brake though and it turns into a
faff setting off again, you've to use the button and the brake pedal and
shift the stick and it's really fussy about the order of things.

Are you sure it isn't an automatic parking brake? That releases itself as you accelerate off from stopped.

On my car, with DSG, I just take my foot off the brake when it has stopped. Parking brake will have applied itself. Then onto accelerator to move off again.

When I first drove automatic, it was switching back to manual after a few months that got me. I simply forgot you need to depress the clutch as you stop!