Hi Gents, I think I have the answer to my handbrake just letting go back in January, I was talking to a guy the other day he was a claims assessor for Direct Line we were discussing the world of Audi and the subject of my handbrake failure came up, complete coincidence but that was what he was going to view, an A4 that had rolled across the company car park where the guy worked and terminated a Fiat 500, [two weeks old], I asked if this was common and he replied yes its due to the battery, the A4 was just four years old and apparently at about that age anything using AGM batteries can have a sudden voltage drop and the handbrake comes off, the manufacturers are aware of this and therefore use EFB batteries which are a lot tougher and not prone to this anomaly on new models.

Steve.

Well we all know dodgy batteries can lead to strange electronic faults, but handbrake failure is a new one on me.