We've noted before that our BMW 3 Series has a hill hold feature they call their "Brake Start-Off Assistant."
It doesn't hold forever, but it gives you a second or two to move your foot from brake to accelerator without having to use the hand brake on hills.
This weekend while I was gallivanting around, I got cut off by a crazy lady in a Bentley who blasted around me at a traffic light then proceeded to drive about 10 mph in front of me.
This caused me to get stuck at the next red light on a very steep hill. No matter what car I'm in when I get stopped at this particular red light, I roll backwards, manual or automatic tranny...
I remember when I first learned to drive a manual transmission car, I felt like every red light was on a monster hill and I would get paranoid about how close the cars were behind me. Why don't all cars have this wonderful feature? I really could have used this when I was learning to drive.
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor @ 23,257 miles
desmolicious says:
02:04 PM, 11/ 6/06
I love the hill hold feature, and everyone that I demonstrate this too wishes their car had it too. Checking the owner's manual, and by testing it, it holds the car for 3 seconds before it releases the brake.
San Francisco here I come!
p.s. I think the new Passat has this feature too. Didn't Subaru use it a while back?
rsholland says:
03:26 PM, 11/ 6/06
Subaru still does—on US-spec Foresters. In other markets it's more widely applied.
carlisimo says:
04:29 PM, 11/ 6/06
We had an old 1985 Subaru with the same feature. I don't know how it compared but I thought it was brilliant, and I'm surprised everyone didn't copy Subaru back then.
rsholland says:
04:57 PM, 11/ 6/06
Actually, it all started not with Subaru, but with Studebaker. They had it first, many years back.
desmolicious says:
05:40 PM, 11/ 6/06
Funny how similar those two names are...coincidence? I think not!
carlisimo says:
01:00 AM, 11/ 7/06
Cool thing to know.
But you're telling me this has been around for DECADES and I still had to do crazy things to get up those San Francisco hills whenever I wasn't in the Subaru? When I could've just had technology older than my parents' first car to just shift and go?
jerrywimer says:
04:49 AM, 11/ 7/06
All cars really should have this feature. But not one of the cars I've ever owned or driven has had it. :-P
mrjones944 says:
11:28 AM, 11/10/06
Why not just let the clutch out a little bit and use that as your method for not rolling back while still being able to keep the other foot on the gas. Takes a little practice I suppose but after driving manuals for years this is the only way I approach a hill.
desmolicious says:
12:12 PM, 11/10/06
Because that kills clutch life. Especially on steep hills like in San Francisco, or where La Cienega hits Sunset in Beverly Hills...
Clutches should be used in binary not fuzzy logic mode!
firstwagon says:
10:11 PM, 11/11/06
I guess it would have been handy when I was first learning to drive but then I never would have learned to drive a standard correctly.
ddoouugg says:
01:11 PM, 08/21/08
That seems like a cool feature, but of course it is just another way technology interferes with the experience of driving a stick the way it's meant to be- manual.