ROME – Goodbye dear old handbrake. As early as 2018, the number of new models equipped with this historic manual device had already been reduced to 37% with a progressive decline which today has reached 9%. And there are numerous car manufacturers that have completely eliminated the handbrake in favor of a safer electronic parking device.
According to research by British specialist CarGurus, the once universal manual handbrake has continued to decline, so much so that as many as 91% of new models on sale are now equipped with an electronic system. Now in its sixth year, CarGurus’ annual manual handbrake report reveals that fewer than one in ten new car models are equipped with a manual handbrake. Additionally, consumers have 61% fewer models to choose from than just four years ago.
Last year CarGurus, the UK’s large automotive marketplace, found that Abarth was the only major manufacturer to offer a manual handbrake on all its models, but, following the recent launch of the Abarth 500e, there is now no there is no longer any major brand that offers a manual handbrake across its entire range. In the list of the most popular cars that have abandoned the handbrake this year we find, for example, the Ford Fiesta, the Ford EcoSport and the now discontinued Kia Rio, while the new versions of the Renault Clio and Captur, Toyota Land Cruiser and Yaris are now equipped with an electronic handbrake.
Today the brands that offer the highest percentage of models with manual handbrake are Suzuki (71% – 5 out of 7 models), Abarth (66% – 2 out of 3), Dacia (50% – 2 out of 4), Fiat ( 45% – 5 out of 11) and Ssangyong (40% – 2 out of 5). Simply put, since the first 2018 edition of the “CarGurus Manual handbrake report”, the percentage of models on sale with a manual handbrake has dropped from 37% to 9%.
“It seems that the legendary manual handbrake is on the verge of extinction, as the percentage of new cars equipped with a handbrake drops to single digits – underlined Chris Knapman, director of CarGurus UK – This once universal feature is now largely reserved for smaller, more affordable petrol cars, such as the Kia Picanto and Mazda2. However, the reality is that the manual handbrake is very likely to become extinct on mainstream cars by the end of the decade.” .
In short, beyond the emotional side and the habit of “pulling the lever”, in the case of repairs, manual handbrakes are generally less expensive than their electronic counterparts: the repair of an electronic model can cost up to three times than that of a manual one (220.37 pounds for the manual handbrake versus 665.98 pounds for the electronic handbrake; approximately 250 and 670 euros respectively). Without forgetting the spectacular spin maneuver triggered by pulling the handbrake at the same time as a sharp turn on the steering… but that’s another story.