Use of handbrake.

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Apologies if this has been covered, I couldn't find anything.

A friend of mine's daughter is learning to drive and in addition to her lessons she's taken her out for extra practice.

When coming to a stop at traffic lights for example, she instructed her daughter to apply the handbrake and put the car in neutral. It seems this is contrary to the instructor's advice, which is to hold the car on the foot brake, in first gear, clutch pedal depressed.

Now when I learnt, it was very definitely handbrake/neutral, and I understood the reasons why. Has it changed, and if so, why, or is the instructor wrong?

More basic than advanced driving, but thoughts welcome. Thanks.

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That's interesting, I'll ask when I see her. It did include foot brake on though.

I have an electric handbrake + DSG and love it.

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Thanks for the replies, which are pretty well what I've been doing for nearly 40 years. I can't think of a good reason to change that, though I can think of some not to.

Interesting about the hill start assist, but as not every car has it you'd need to know the correct procedure without. I'll see if I can find online what the correct action is for the driving examiner.

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Pothole said:

How is this "advanced driving"?

Well, I did say that, but many questions on this sub forum are for relatively basic driving for some. But it's also where people who know more about technique, and why, will comment.

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Sheepshanks said:

The best way to find out what the instructor is thinking is to get your friend to ask him.

When my kids were learning I had a couple of discussions with their instructor - just from the POV of clarifying current thinking in how best to pass the test. What you don't want is the kid to get confused so it's important at this stage to be consistent.

I totally agree. I'll ask her to find out next time I see her. I'll post if anything interesting comes to light.

Thanks all for the input.

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Thanks for that. Yes, I can hear my father now 'get off my bloody clutch unless you want to pay for a new one'.

I'll see if I can find out why the instructor teaches it. Seems odd.

Thanks

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PistonBroker said:

I can't abide people who sit with their brake lights on but, if that really is what youngsters are being taught, it makes sense why it's so prevalent now.

As no driving lessons are going on at present I'm afraid I can't offer an update.