The Manual Handbrake Is Almost Extinct

If you’ve spent any time in any car built in the last five years, the death of the manual handbrake won’t surprise you. It seems pretty much every new car has ditched a good-old lever in favour of a little switch, and now we have numbers to prove that the analogue option is on its way out.

CarGurus has crunched the numbers for its ‘Manual Handbrake Report’ (Yes, that is a real thing apparently. We’d love to know who has that job), which is now in its seventh year. It’s revealed that just one new car has been introduced to the market – the budget-friendly Dacia Spring – has been launched in the last 12 months with a manual handbrake.

That combined with the death of loved cars the Volkswagen Up and err, less loved like the press release name-checked Fiat Tipo Cross has resulted in just 49 of 587 cars on sale in the UK being available with a manual handbrake. That’s about eight per cent or, according to CarGurus’ numbers, a 73 per cent drop since it started keeping track.

We drive a lot of new cars here at CT and come to think of it, it’s hard to think of many that have had a manual handbrake lately. Three come to mind that I’ve driven in the last year – our long-term Toyota GR86 (which is no longer on sale), the Abarth 695 Anniversario (which is about to go off sale) and the ‘Gen 2’ Toyota GR Yaris (which you could only buy through a ballot anyway).

It’s easy to see why manufacturers have resorted to putting electric handbrakes on everything. Talk to most non-car people about it and they’ll probably tell you they prefer pushing a button than pulling a lever, and it also does free up a little more space in centre consoles. Oh, and they’re usually cheaper and easier to make.

That said, we’re happy to start the #SaveTheHandbrake movement. After all, you can’t handbrake turn in an empty car park with an electric button…