I lock my doors and only keep the windows cracked open in the summer (otherwise they're all the way up). I feel too paranoid about someone stealing or vandalizing my car even though I know there's nothing worth stealing in the car.


At the Taurus forum I visit, the members encourage setting the parking brake and correct people when they call it a E-Brake. Not using the parking brake can strain the motor mounts and parking pin. I've heard of parking pin failures from not using the parking brake which ended up with people having to start using the parking brake or using a parking brick.


And here's a picture of the brake release handle in relation to the hood release:


Funny story, my family rented a Chevy Uplander once for a vacation and it had a parking brake pedal that you would push to set and push again to release. When I took over driving from my uncle I didn't notice that he never set the parking brake. I instinctively bent down and pulled on the brake release handle (Chevy put the hood release where the brake release handle would be on a Ford). I heard a THUNK and thinking the brake pedal shot up and went on my merry way. It wasn't until the next stop that I realized that the hood was popped the entire second leg of the trip.