Hill Start Assist - Improvement or a Step Back
 

I am not sure the Hill Start Assist "feature" that was added this year is such a good thing. For those who are not familiar with it, when you stop on a hill holding the brake in low gear, it will keep the brakes on after you take your foot off the pedal to keep you from rolling backwards. Sounds like it might be a good idea but the problem is that it holds the brakes on for 2 seconds after the brake pedal is released. So for those of us who are quick and didn't have problems starting on hills will now probably kill the engine most every time because the brakes will still be on. Those with slow reactions that kept rolling backwards might do better.

This must of been an idea from the marketing department because it is more trouble than it is worth. There is a very handy parking brake that can be used to perform this function under the driver's control. Now I find that I have to remember to wait until the car just starts to roll back before I can take off. Why is this an improvement over what we have always had? :iono:

Ford has it on the 2013 Mustang too.

You don't need it if you can drive a manual properly, nor do you need to use the parking brake.

One comment about using the parking brake on a hill. I drive in San Francisco very often and there are some hills there that even us old guys that have been driving sticks for 50 years use the parking brake! :)

My 83 Subaru had it. Awesome stuff, I'm surprised more cars don't have them. I've driven manuals since 1972, so it's not like I have a problem on hills, but that hill brake was a cool deal regardless.

Learn to use all 4 limbs on a hill and you don't have any problems.

Left hand on steering wheel
Right hand on emergency brakes
Left leg feathering the clutch
Right leg modulating the throttle

There are quite a few 50+ degree incline in San Francisco and it never fails me. The only thing that I hate are retards that RIDE YOUR ASS CLOSE on a hill.

Is there a way to deactivate the feature? Is it part of Stabilitrak? Sorry bad spelling

Looks like all the bay area people are speaking up. SF is a horrible place to drive a stick. The people behind you are the worst.

Wow. Someone who spelled perfectly, who says "sorry" for spelling.:bow::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:. I just thought you needed some positive reinforcement.

First, I will preface this by saying I have not driven a 2013 Camaro with this feature yet, so I am merely theorizing. If I'm incorrect, please correct me.

I did have Hill Assist on my last car. same idea, hold the brakes for an extra two seconds to give you just enough time to get rolling. with that system, it only applied the brakes just enough to hold the car from rolling backwards. Very light pressure will do this. In other words, it did not lock the wheels to prevent any and all movement. The purpose of this system is to let you start moving forward while it is still on.

OP, are you saying that in the Camaro, it applies so much pressure on the brakes that you are not able to move forward until it deactivates? If this is the case, it would be a step backwards. I would assume however that Chevrolet would not design a system such as this, as it requires you to guess when the two seconds are up. After all, once the hill assist releases the brakes, you would be in the same position as if the system did not even exist. To me, this wouldn't make sense.

:iono:

I picked up my 2013 a couple of weeks ago and I know what the OP it talking about. If you give it enough gas (1200-1500 RPM) and let out the clutch it will have enough power to overcome the braking. I'm guessing the OP is like me and doesn't give it that much throttle...over the years I have learned to keep the RPM's at or below 1000 while letting off the clutch when starting out...less clutch wear (my 1991 Jeep has 115K on the original clutch and it's still going strong). I'm not saying one way is better than the other, but if you're used to keeping your RPM's down then the hill assist takes some getting used to.

I looked at a 2012 Sonic for my daughter. It also has the hill assist. As it was explained to me (did not test it myself), the hill assist only holds until the accelerator is pressed and then it releases the brake. According to a Sonic brochure, if you turn off StabiliTrak it will disable the hill assist also.

Interesting....in the Camaro pressing on the accelerator does not release the hill assist.

You cant post negative things here in camarofanboyland what is wrong with you

It deactivates almost instantly, it works off the clutch pedal safety switch.

You probably can't even tell it's happening, except for the fact that you don't roll backwards.