Electronic parking brakes have become the norm, but need to be repaired for £ 682 more

The handbrake is fast becoming a thing of the automotive past as manufacturers eradicate them from their latest cars in favor of electronic parking brakes.

Now, 83 percent of all new conventional models on the market are sold with an electronic parking brake, up 76 percent in 2020 and 70 percent in 2019.

But switching car manufacturers from a handbrake can be costly for drivers, and the average cost of repairing a faulty electronic parking brake is £ 831, according to MotorEasy used car warranty provider.

Meanwhile, repairing a handbrake costs an average of £ 149 – a difference of £ 682.

A breakdown of how many new models are now sold with electronic parking brakes was revealed as part of the annual report on the CarGurus handbrake platform for online sales, which is now in its third installment.

It examined 642 models offered by 38 major brands, with 550 cars having an electronic alternative to hand brakes. This means that only 92 new cars have a handbrake.

The report confirms that popular models, including the Seat Leon, BMW 4 Series and Vauxhall Corsa – which is set to become Britain’s most purchased new car in 2021 – have abandoned traditional handbrakes in the past year.

And some manufacturers have already pulled the brakes on the handbrake for all the models in their showrooms.

The names of households, including Volvo, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, now no longer sell a single passenger car with a handbrake in the UK, which has switched 100% to an electronic alternative.

Other big brands are also on the verge of completely abandoning the handbrake.

For example, only one percent of new Audis have the option of a handbrake – the Audi A1 Sportback – while only six percent of Peugeot’s offering offers a more conventional braking system.

While electronic parking brakes offer drivers easier operation – they are activated at the touch of a button and are automatically released when the driver presses the gas – their repair is much more expensive.

The most expensive cost of repairing an electronic parking brake on MotorEasy records is a £ 2,005 bill to repair a system in a 10-year-old Range Rover.

And electronic parking brake problems are not what we would call rare.

In 2017, Volkswagen was forced to recall 766,000 cars worldwide – of which 134,000 were British models, due to a recurring problem with electronic parking brakes.

This has affected the hugely popular Golf sedans, Touran minivans, Tiguan SUVs and the family sedan and Passat station wagon.

That same year, Tesla also voluntarily recalled 53,000 S and Model X vehicles worldwide due to a parking brake failure, while Audi, Renault and Toyota all also had to recall models due to similar problems with their electronic parking systems in the past.

One brand that will not be forced to carry out such recalls is Abarth.

Fiat’s powerful arm is the only manufacturer in the mass market to offer handbrakes on all models in its range – although this only consists of the advanced versions of the previous generation of 500 supermini.

Even Dacia, famous for its affordable engines, has started installing electronic parking brakes in its latest models, including new Sandero supermini.

CarGurus says the decline from 24 percent of new cars with handbrakes in 2020 to just 17 percent this year was caused by two factors.

The first is the rise of electric and hybrid models, which in most cases use electronic parking brakes.

The second is this year’s departure of Mitsubishi from the UK market and with it a number of models that were presented in the 2020 data with hand-held parking brakes.

Chris Knapman, editor at CarGurus UK, said: ‘Last year we announced the existence of the handbrake in new cars for just a few more years, and our latest data give no reason to believe otherwise, as the decline is even greater. 2021 as it was between 2020 and 2019.

“The rapid transition to electric vehicles will only accelerate the withdrawal of the handbrake, causing many traditionalists looking for a tactile feel and mechanical simplicity of the handbrake to scratch their heads.

“Nevertheless, some models of new cars with handbrakes in different classes are still available for drivers who want to enjoy this feature.”