My wife has a P1800 and I'm worried about having it parked on a hill where we live. The car is 35+ years old and I'm concerned there are severely worn brake parts or cables that we don't know about that could "snap" at any time with the parking brake set and cause the car to roll down the hill. The other issue is that there's no curb in front of our house where she can turn in the wheels when parked.

My questions are...

1) how likely is it that the parking brake will fail? Are there backup systems to prevent that from happening?

2) Can the car roll (backwards) on its own if the parking is set but the car is parked in first gear?

3) is there anything I can do to prevent the car from rolling in the event the parking brake system fails?

4) is this a known issue with P1800s? (parking brake failing)

thanks
David

P.S. I have been trying to get my wife to sell or donate this car for the last 4 years unsucessfully. I even offered to buy her a brand new Mini Cooper. She insists on keeping it for its "charm" and "character". If anyone has any good arguments that I can use, besides safety, why this car isn't practical (she probably spends about $500/year on maintainance) please let me know. :-) The safety issues with this car really worries me.