Probably about 2 miles. I borrowed a roommate’s car. It was an automatic and parked in a completely flat parking lot. It sporadically shook, and eventually I pulled over to figure out what was going on.
The parking brake on my PT Cruiser (which I just traded in last month) was pretty weak. I had at least a half-dozen occasions in which I drove at least a mile or more with the parking brake on. I’d finally notice it once I got up to a certain speed, and the car would start to vibrate a bit. :smack:
a few tenths of a mile I think… I thought the beeping was because my friend hadn’t put on his seatbelt yet (which he hadn’t), and when he finally did, it kept beeping and I thought the sensor was just acting funny. Oops. No damage or smoke though, lucky me!
No more than a few hundred feet or so.
This was in a manual though, and driving a manual you really get to know how each gear should “feel”
So with the brake on - well, you feel pretty quickly that something’s off.
Now, forgetting to set the parking brake when parking - well, I’ve done that more than once and I even have a story of failure and misery on that topic, posted right here on the SDMB. More details if desired.
My truck’s parking brake is a BRAKEbrake. It doesn’t mess around. I don’t think the truck will move more than a few feet with it on, and it makes some pretty terrible noises and such to let me know. (I only wish my turn signals would make a fraction as much noise, so I’d know when I’ve left them on :D).
But a former field truck I frequently drove didn’t have such a great parking brake and I think I went about a half mile in it before I realized why the truck just wasn’t driving “right”.
On the day I first soloed in a glider, I forgot to release the wheel brake when I landed (yes, gliders have a wheel brake). Due to limited experience, I came to a full stop about half the runway length short of the parking area, and then I hand-pulled the glider the rest of the way. That’s supposed to be real easy (gliders are light), but instead it totally wore me out – and yet it didn’t occur to me that something wasn’t normal here, even though I had pulled gliders around plenty of times before and after earlier training flights. I only figured it out after I had the glider all parked.
I don’t remember exactly how far I drove but I do remember it immediately induced Tourette’s syndrome.
I’ve gone pretty far. I had my car more heavily loaded than I ever had before so I attributed the sluggish performance and handling to the load and didn’t even think to check the brake. I drove across town to pick up a friend and made it onto interstate and a few miles farther before finally noticing, so it was probably between 15 and 20 miles in all.
About 2 or 3 K’s, from my Nana’s house to downtown. It was when I first learned to drive and first got my Jeep. I parked at my favourite take-out place and thought “Oh hey, what’s that red light on the dash?” Big ole “BRAKE” light shining brightly. :smack: I probably didn’t have the lever pulled all the way up since I was able to drive that far and not notice anything amiss. Now I pull the lever up further and my Jeep won’t move with the parking brake on.
Intermittently very far. I was a kid, going to a party with friends, in my sister’s car. The brakes failed about 2 miles from home. We continued to the party which was around 45 miles away, shifting down and using the emergency brake to stop.
Good times.
The first time I ever drove. We were visiting relatives in a very small town, and Dad had me practice driving around. But he didn’t think to tell me to take the parking brake off, and I, never having driven before, didn’t think to do it either, and didn’t really recognize that the car wasn’t driving right, so I drove around for I don’t remember how long with the parking brake on.
Because that’s what it’s for?
See this GQ thread that addresses the question Should the parking brake on a car (automatic transmission, if it matters) be used every time the car is parked regardless of slope?
When we bought our Datsun 1600 sports car, my wife was so excited that she immediately leapt into it and drove to the ocean with her best bud.
143 miles. With the parking brake on. To be fair, it wasn’t much of a brake (it was even less of a brake afterwards 
) and it was a new (to us) car, so she didn’t know how it was supposed to feel.
Myself, I just about went nuts that weekend, worrying about things that could go wrong with two women in an old Datsun 140 miles from home, its condition and reliability still pretty much a mystery to me.
- Mitch Hedberg
The only time I can think of was way back when I was just starting to drive I had a vw bug and it broke down just a couple of miles from my home. So my step-dad came out and towed me home. It wasn’t until we got home and I went to pull the e-brake that I realized it was already pulled and I had never released it to begin with. My step-dad made some comment about how heavy the bug felt when towing it and so I fessed up that I had forgot to take the e-brake off. He just laughed.
My car is 5 years old and doesn’t have anything like that. It’s a Honda - which is generally a very reliable make but sometimes doesn’t jump on the “warning signal” feature as soon as they ought (e.g. our first Civic had no warning chime if you left the headlights on).
[/quote]
Oh - and to answer the OP: perhaps a mile, with a car many years ago. The current one, maybe a block or so.
Maybe a hundred feet. I notice pretty damn quickly. It only happens when my father previously drove the car, because he sets the parking break on the driveway (which barely has a slope).
Honest to goodness true story:
My brother’s inlaws went on vacation for a few weeks and asked him to drive their car every once in a while to keep the battery up and such. Just before they returned he parked it in front of their house and set the brake.
The next evening his mother in law called and said there was something wrong with the car…“It won’t go for shit” she said. He went to check it out and saw two big black streaks from where he parked it, around the corner to where she had left it…
Not exactly what the OP is looking for but when I was in the Army, I drove a Deuce and a Half with a Commo shelter on the back, which looked something like this. One day as I was doing whatever it was I was doing with the vehicle, I attached the trailer to the hitch, hooked up the air hoses for the brakes, and drove the vehicle up the road and back to the motor pool where it belonged. I knew the main brake hose wasn’t working quite right, but what I didn’t know was that when main air brake wasn’t working right, the emergency brake kicks in and locks up the wheels on the trailer. I dragged that trailer with its locked up wheels past the comm center where my department was, past my company headquarters, and past the other company’s headquarters, and past the other company’s barracks until I smelled the smoke, slammed on the brakes, hopped out and removed the hoses from the trailer.
Total distance travelled was about 3 blocks, though everyone on post got to see evidence of my handiwork as the skid was right there on the concrete for everyone to see for many months after that.
I can’t speak for him, but I live on a hill, which leads down to a lake. I know of two people near me who didn’t used to set their parking brakes, until their cars ended up in the water. I rather be safe then sorry.
Oh, and my parking brake HOLDS. I’ve had a bunch of cars with wimpy parking brakes that didn’t seem to do much but suggest slowing down maybe. The one in my Prius locks the wheels up tight when fully engaged.
Not the park brake, but I must mention the time a coworker of mine drove 200km at highway speeds while riding the brake. He was wearing huge winter boots.
When we stopped, the -40 degree, 120km/h windchill was gone and the four wheel wells were lit up like they had 100w bulbs mounted in them and then they all burst into flames simultaneously.
We actually got to use the fire extinguishers, so that was cool.