In what situations do you find the DSC to be a boon? a burden? I'm sure that some of you swear by it, while others swear at it.

 

High speed, sudden, avoidance manuevers -- e.g. some bozo on a cell phone charging into your lane on the Interstate.

Sudden avoidance manuevers on any sort of road at any speed when the conditions are less than ideal (slippery).

I've had the first instance happen to me twice, and DSC was great. I expect it'll work well for the second if that should happen. But for regular, around town, driving I tend to keep it turned off so that the traction control will ALSO be off. As I've written before, the MINI's traction control is downright dangerous in its heavy handed approach to cutting wheel spin at any cost. I've had it kick on many times while I'm trying to pull into intersections...and the loss of engine power while traffic is bearing down on me is hair-raising at best.

 

>>In what situations do you find the DSC to be a boon? a burden? I'm sure that some of you swear by it, while others swear at it.

I decided to save the $500 for other goodies to improve performance and ordered my mini without the DSC. After research and talking with performance drivers I made this decision based on wanting to improve my driving skills and not rely on the vehicle. good luck with your decision.

 

Depends upon what I'm doing. I think I leave it in default mode (ON) most of the time. Rarely do I turn mine off. Many people have reported it being too sensitive at launch; I don't have that problem. I think I've only had my DSC turned off for probably 200 miles of the 9500 I've put my MCS. Maybe when I start to autoX I'll turn it off more often, but I don't see that happening in the near future.

 

The buzz seems to be that DSC is great in ice, rain, or emergencies. The only criticism is that it can cut engine power, say, for example, when you're pulling quickly out af a side street across traffic. I do this a lot (...almost all city driving), so I didn't even get DSC.

 

If you autocross, turn it off...way off. I left it on for my first autox and was disappointed in how the car performed. Everytime the wheels spun a little, the DSC kicked in an spoiled the fun. Did its job, mind you. It's just not a sport feature (despited being included in the sport package). This may be a myth, but I was told by a SCCA pro driving an 02 MCS to hold down the DSC switch for a little more than two seconds to turn it completely off. According to him, if you just flip the switch once quickly, it remains on, but in a less aggressive state. Sounds strange, but I believe him. Anyone else heard of this?

 

DSC does not cut engine power. Ever.

It's the traction control system that goes haywire and shuts off the engine every time you press the gas pedal. There is no relation between the crazy traction control system and the fantastic DSC other than the tragic fact that they share a switch.

I've noticed that hitting the DSC switch quickly does not activate the light but then again all the switches in the car are really, really slow and sluggish. Maybe someday I'll find a *very* open road and try out Jayar's theory

 

I skipped it and got the standard ASC+T in my '04 MCS. Our '02 Cooper CVT doesn't even have ASC or DSC. Save those $500 for something more worthwhile.

 

That's interesting, Vespa. My understanding was that DSC uses the brakes to keep the slipping wheel(s) from continuing to slip. In autox situations (e.g. accelerating out of a hard corner, or even on launch), having the DSC on gives unwanted results. Whether cutting power is the proper term...I don't know. But that's exactly how I'd describe it. You're trying to go faster, and the car is saying "no". Maybe I'm referring to traction control, but at any rate, before you start your run, hold the toggle switch labeled "DSC" down for a couple of seconds. Then you're off to the races.

 

Yes, that's the traction control. Slamming on the brakes and shutting off the engine every time you depress the gas pedal more than halfway.

DSC moderates throttle, timing, and brakes but in a much different way. DSC does whatever it needs to do (usually just selective braking) to make sure that the car is travelling in the same direction the tires are pointing. DSC does not care if you are spinning your tires or have the brakes locked up, it only looks at the direction of travel and compares it with the steering angle.

If you trigger DSC by racing wildly around a corner you will feel the hand of god reach down and guide you through the corner as if you had tremendously more traction. Of course, ASC will likely be triggered along the way and will turn off the engine. But you'll sure coast through that corner tightly.