In article <c9gqhh02f40@enews1.newsguy.com>,
"Tim Evans" <time@megagate.com> wrote:

> Growing up, my father always told me to engage the parking brake on a car
> with an automatic transmission while the car was still in drive or reverse
> (or even neutral) before shifting into park (of course, the car should be
> stopped). This was somehow supposed to "reduce the strain" on the
> transmission. So, is there really any good reason to do this?

Yes.

Put the car into neutral, engage the parking brake, take your foot off
the brake, and let the car settle into being held by the parking brake.

THEN put it into park.

The parking brake should be the primary method of holding the stress of
the car. The transmission parking pawl should be only a backup to that.