Twice, I have parked the car with it running and not pulled the brake hard enough. I ended up chasing the car down the hill and jumping in to stop it.

You really have to pull the e-brake pretty hard to prevent the car from rolling on even a slight incline, so better safe than sorry!!

 

I'd do both just to be sure. This week, as I was coming back to work from lunch, I saw a curious sight of a BMW Z3 parked under the bumper of a Dodge Ram pickup. It wasn't too hard to figure out that that the empty space behind the Z3 was it's original starting place. And this parking lot is not really on a slope at all (judging visually). Turns out the BMW owner had about $1k worth of damage. DOH!

 

About a year ago, a friend and I were at a near by Hollywood Video parked on a steep downhill. As we were just about to drive away, we noticed the brand new black 3000gt (vr4) next to us rolling backwards slowly.

After staring at it in disbelief for a second, we jumped out an caught it. We held it for a long time till a tow truck could finally come, break in to the car, and stop the rolling.

It turns out the driver had left it in neutral with the parking break up. My lesson for that day was to always leave my car in gear as well as having the ebreak up.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
[B]Always in 1st + ebrake. 1 backs up other.

 

My friend's MR2 turbo rolled down my driveway and into my garage door. He had just installed new brake pads and some powerslot rotors, had the e-brake up but didn't have the car in reverse. I guess the rear brakes weren't clamping on to the rotors properly. Luckily there were only a few scratches on his car and my garage door was easily fixed by a good kick.

 

It's usually a good idea if you remember to put it in neutral when you are starting the car.

I once parked the car and forgot to pull the handbrake at work.

A friend of mine from the office was talking to me before lunch, and said..."Man...you park a bit crazy this morning". I was like what? Turns out, my car had rolled backwards out of it's parking space passed the driving lane for parking, passed two more parking spaces and was dead smack in the next driving lane for parking. Good thing I always park far as heck!

If the car was in 1st gear...it would have never rolled off like that.