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This question is discussed all over the internet, but it seems to be just a voting procedure. I'd like to get a high-quality answer, and, since I couldn't find it on SE, I'll ask it again here.

With the manual transmission, when parking on a horizontal surface, should I leave my car in neutral plus the hand-break or in gear plus the hand-break?

Strangely, I get the following impression from the forums: In schools, they teach to park in neutral, with the hand-break only. And the experienced drivers then recommend to forget it and park in gear.

I seem to understand the reasoning behind the "in gear" approach, but I do not understand why the schools teach it differently.

Zaid
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texnic
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2 Answers2

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My suggestion is always park with the transmission in gear and the park brake on. Along with curbing the wheels. Gear selection (forward or reverse) on flat ground, I choose reverse. My reasoning is that a vehicle parked curbside is more likely to be struck from the rear. Even a nudge from a careless driver can push the vehicle if it is only held by the park brake. As most vehicles are now front or all wheel drive this means that the front wheels are being used to prevent the wheels from moving if the transmission is in gear. Since most park brakes are holding the rear wheels you have both the front and rear wheels preventing the vehicle from rolling. If you want overkill the U.S. Postal Service requires that vehicles be in gear or Park, the park brake set, the wheels curbed and a chock block used every time the vehicle is unattended.

mikes
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The schools teach you to park in neutral to prevent you from causing the car to jerk forward the next time you start it and forget to step on the clutch first. So here goes:

  1. If you don't want to have a minor accident while starting your car because you forgot to step on the clutch, leave it in neutral.
  2. If you want the extra protection of having your front AND rear wheel(s) locked, then leave it in reverse or 1st.

Simple as that. I prefer leaving my car in neutral on a flat surface and I either curb my wheels or at the very least turn them in such a way to cause as little damage to my car as possible if the parking brake fails. But if I'm parked on an incline (And I only do that on very rare occasions for safety reasons), I leave it in gear.

Captain Kenpachi
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