While parking on an incline i attempted to set the caras parking brake. with my foot on the brake pedal, i pulled the brake handle fully upward without holding the button. when i released my hand from the parking brake, i found the handle to still be in my hand because it had fallen back down as a result of never engaging. i attempted to set the parking brake a minimum of 4 more times with no success. in a final attempt, i pulled the handle swiftly and much more firmly upward at which point the brake finally became set. i retested the parking brake by releasing it and setting it again with success. i recently took the car in for service 11/8/04 because the car has a history of the parking break releasing by itself but it has never been totally unable to be set. culver city mazda states that they were unable to duplicate the parking break failure so no repairs were made. it was suggested that when pulling up the brake handle i should not push the button, which is something i always practiced prior to this complication.*ak