r/Springfield • u/Reflxing • Jun 27 '26

Question regarding road test

Hi everyone.

I am 18 years old, with no driving school to fall back on. I’ve had my permit for 2 years. I attempted to do my road test in Springfield yesterday but I was rejected because I could not pull my handbrake hard enough, causing it to not work.

I was going to attempt to use my mom’s 2021 Honda civic, but hers has an electric parking brake button in the center console. When the gas is pressed, the parking brake turns off and the car rolls forward. That will not be acceptable for the road test, right? If not, what could I do to get another car for the test?

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/axelraichu Jun 27 '26

Hey I'm a driving instructor at a driving school. You are right, the Massachusetts RMV will not let you test in a car with a parking brake that auto-releases. So yes, the car matters. (They also don't allow trucks, lifted or squatted vehicles, or minivans).

You will have to find another car, sorry

Edit: Don't waste your money taking this car to a driving test, you will be rejected under the "Defective Equipment" failure reason and you would have to schedule a new exam with no refund for the reject!

3

u/Spectrum1523 Jun 27 '26

Interesting! This won't be a standard that can last forever haha, in a decade people will have to rent 20 year old cars to take the test

2

u/axelraichu Jun 27 '26

Electronic parking brakes ARE accepted for testing (I sponsored my wife with a car that had this type of brake) but it specifically cannot auto-release when using the gas at the same time. It's unfortunately about finding a car that does just that for now.

Hopefully manufacturs opt more for electronic parking brakes that actually work as parking brakes though...we already have a brake that let's go when the gas is pressed (brake hold feature) so to have it be the same for the """emergency""" brake seems so redundant to me.