Thanks, by the way the gear shifter was just flopping after they towed the car in. You could flop it back and forth from park to low without pushing in the button.

The car is being delivered Thursday but yes, I think it has the switch you are talking about. It's the Executive model.

The guy said I was lucky the car started on fire after getting wet. He said it was probably and accident waiting to happen with bare wires somewhere under the dash where it started and could have started while on the road.

Press the parking brake and back up....
Now try try driving forward.

The brake shoes work like a cam and the forward rotation helps apply them.

Some of the newer cars don't use the drum barking brake. A number of vehicles even with disc brake still use a drum parking brake that works like a cam.

Doug

Someone had posted awhile back on this topic (I think it was here on THT) that they have a chock for each front tire on a line with a loop that they throw over each side mirror. As they drive forward up the ramp, the chock is dragged along until finding a place to stop. I think that would work well.

My first vehicle, when I was in high school, was a F-250 manual. I had a 6x6 that I cut with a 45 in one end. One the other end I had a big eye bolt. I had a rope on the eye bolt and would stick it under a tire SOMEWHERE when I would launch/retrieve. I would then tie the rope to some part of the truck so that when I took off it would drag up the ramp and not get hung up somewhere. Most of the time I was able to do this on the back tire, not the front, and just tie it to the bumper. There was always that moment of limbo when you were by yourself and you'd lock up the parking brake and hold your breath to make sure it was holding. Saved me many a day!
Now that I have an automatic I guess I've put trust in the "P" and parking brake. Locking it into 4x4 I've done now on steep ramps and after reading this I'll have to make sure to do that more frequently.

I was told that if you saw how small the Park detent is in the transmission, you would never leave it just in Park on any kind of slope

I can't tell - what kind of vehicle was it that sunk? Sorry for your loss but you seems to have the right mindset.

Problem though with this is sometimes the parking brake gets stuck and you can't release it.

There are videos on youtube of pulling a stock car on trailer with the Touareg doing 75 and 80 mph. It's one of the best mid sized SUV's for towing and has factory hitch along with 4WD or really all wheel drive but still gets 20 or more mpg. It weighs around 5000 pounds. My Explorer got 13 pulling my 3500 pound boat.

Push on the pedal while pulling the release - it'll release easily.

I always back in fairly close to the dock and religiously cut the wheels hard over in the event the e-brake on my truck ever fails. I carry a chock but only use it when the ramp is slick. Disclaimer: I also have a roller trailer so my truck wheels are seldom within 5 or 6 feet of the water.

You just lost a vehicle because the parking break failed and you're concerned about using a chock because someone might judge you for it..........i guess you enjoy testing out your vehicles floatation

It’s not an E brake, it’s a parking brake. It works forward or reverse. Use it.

To efficiently use a chock under the front wheel, attach a cord to it and close you door on the cord so when you drive up the ramp, it just drags the chock along. Just be sure there is not enough cord for the chock to reach the real wheel.