Brake feel

[Frufru]

As I never driven a car with all those fancy technologies (ESP, ABS, EBD and so on) ... until now I am just in need of reasurance.

On Saturday I was driving just around dusk down south (WA, around Yalingup), when a huge roo boomer decided to cross the road just in front of me. For a moment I thought, here comes my Skoda (had it just for 10 days then). Nevertheless, managed to stop just about half a meter in front of him. The breaking was kinda different from my older cars. No screeching tyres, at the beginning of breaking it feels like the brakes dont perform as much as on other cars but the thing seems to stop fairly quickly. I was actually suprised how quickl it stopped.

Do you think the lack of screeching noise comes from fresh brakes?
Do you think it is a bad thing that I was unable to lock brakes?

[gregozedobe]

1 Do you think the lack of screeching noise comes from fresh brakes?
2 Do you think it is a bad thing that I was unable to lock brakes?

1 The tyres didn't screech because the ABS stopped them from locking up, thus giving you the best possible braking.

2 No, a rotating tyre has much more grip than a locked up (skidding) tyre - and it saved you from running into the roo, so you should be very happy about that indeed :D

In an emergency the ABS and ESP will help you to stop as fast as possible, but they will also allow you to steer around things as well. Your impression that the initial response was a bit slow may be because in a panic stop the car has a fair bit of weight transfer and suspension movemant at first, then when it has maximum weight on the front wheels it can really "dig in" and stop, plus there is the psychological factor of thinking you are about to hit that large roo :o

If you are still concerned there may be a problem with the brakes on your car, you could test drive the same model from a dealer and see what they are like (but choose one that has done at least 200Km so it's brakes have bedded in a bit).

It sounds like you need to adjust your old driving "knowledge" of what your car is capable of. I'd recommend you find out, as it may save your life someday.

Maybe go on an advanced driver training course (not racing techniques, but everyday emergency evasive action and recovery, with some wet skidpan work as well) ?

If that's not possible, then get onto a large (deserted) car park and find out what happens when you swerve around an imaginary obstacle, then try it with braking at the same time. If you pick a wet day and keep your speed down you should be able to get some useful data without risking any harm to you, your vehicle or anyone or anything else.

[mrx]

I have noticed that the ABS system is much more refined than older ABS cars I've driven, the pulsations through the pedal are much quicker, and the whole thing happens with a lot less fuss than older cars.

These cars are pretty smart, and if you apply enough brake pressure so that the car thinks it's an emergency stop, it will actually take over from you and provide maximum braking force. A mistake that a lot of people make with ABS equipped cars, particularly if they've never driven one before is that they don't brake hard enough in an emergency. Basically you should just stomp on it as hard as you can, let the car take care of the braking, and concentrate on steering around the obstacle.

[brad]

I did an advanced driving course a few years back. Managed to get my 80-0stop from an initial 40metres down to <20m.

The instructors basic words were: "The only technique required on ABS cars is to stomp on the pedal as hard as you can." And he was fairly right - no need to worry about threshold braking, lock-ups, etc. Mash the brakes, look for an escape route & steer.

OH, BTW: hi all, I'm new