What small cars are available with a conventional handbrake?

There’s a strong trend within car-makers to ditch conventional park-brakes in favour of the one-button, electronic version. Along with the conventional manual transmission, it seems the park-brake lever is doomed to extinction. But that’s kind of the point, really; without a manual transmission, there’s no need for a hill-start using the conventional park-brake, as it’s only manual cars where this has ever been a real requirement.

While the best electronic park-brakes apply and disengage themselves automatically (if you forget) not everybody is a fan of them on the basis that they’re slower to operate and sometimes don’t operate logically or ergonomically. So why do car-makers use them? Partly because they’re seen by many consumers as an advance. For some car buyers, any time you replace a mechanical system with an electronic one, that’s progress. The electronic brake also allows for an automatic hill-hold function and, in a manual car, the brake will automatically release as the clutch pedal is released, preventing the car from rolling back until the clutch is biting.

Meantime, it’s hard to imagine that an electronic park-brake with its actuating motor(s) is any lighter than a conventional cable-operated brake, nor can the electronic version claim simplicity compared with a cable brake. The other argument is that the e-brake (as it’s become known) frees up space in the cabin. Perhaps.

Meantime, given that as many as 80 per cent of cars have switched to an electronic park-brake, and about 90 per cent of new cars are automatics, finding one with a conventional brake and a manual transmission mightn’t be an easy task.