Will the car roll back if parked in P gear without engaging the handbrake?
2 Answers
Will the car roll back if parked in P gear without engaging the handbrake? Extended information is as follows: 1. Automatic transmission cars: Generally use an automatic transmission (AT) to regulate the vehicle speed. While driving, the control system of the automatic transmission automatically selects the appropriate gear based on the engine's speed and load, replacing the driver's subjective judgment of timing and gear shifting operations. 2. Manual transmission cars: Use a manual shift mechanical transmission (also known as manual transmission, MT) to regulate the vehicle speed. That is, the driver must manually move the gear lever to change the gear meshing position inside the transmission, altering the gear ratio to achieve speed variation. The gear lever can only be shifted when the clutch is depressed.
Having driven for over a decade, I know full well that parking on a slope without engaging the handbrake while only relying on the P gear can potentially lead to dangerous rollbacks. I remember once parking on a steep slope in my hometown—I got careless and didn’t pull the handbrake, thinking the P gear would hold just fine. Suddenly, the car slid backward slightly, nearly hitting a roadside storage box, which gave me a real scare. Since then, I’ve made it a habit to always engage the handbrake, even on flat garage surfaces, to avoid unnecessary strain on the transmission—the P gear locks the gears, but on steep slopes, that mechanism alone can’t fully withstand the car’s weight, allowing slippage. Many automatic transmission beginners overlook this, assuming P gear is foolproof, but safety is always built on careful habits. My advice? Make pulling the handbrake second nature—small precautions prevent big troubles, making driving much more worry-free.
