Hill Assist is not clutch-based. That approach would increase the already large number of complaints for worn-out clutch friction discs. Instead, Hill Assist applies the brakes momentarily to keep the car in place while the clutch is engaged. The downside to an arbitrary 2 second application of the brakes is that if you get the car going in less than 2 seconds, you are increasing the wear of both the brakes and the clutch. Also, what if you don't get the car going in the alotted 2 second period? Forget to re-initiate Hill Assist and the car rolls backward.... Just another reason for my belief in the e-Brake method - total control of the car.

The comment about clueless was a bit over the top. Part of the appeal of the MINI is the variety of MINI owners you meet. Requiring them to pass an "entrance test" would filter out some really nice people. Fortunately, BMW's economic interests are not served by such an outlook.

 

i'm at almost 600 miles

 

C'mon. Don't you know tongue in cheek when you see it. Unfortunately, our set of "emoticons" doesn't have one for that. If you see these 2 combined, that's what it means. Wink plus grin equals tongue in cheek. , get it? Some folks are so thin skinned and want to defend a percieved slight.
geeeesh!

Subaru had the hill holder clutch in the '80's. I imagine that initially, MINI was a car for enthusiasts who just plain knew how to drive a stick. The "enthusiast" pool has dried up and now, in an effort to have broader appeal to the "stickless" (translate: clueless) generation, MINI now embraces the hill holder clutch. (flame on)

 

Well, 600 miles is better than 300 miles for going a bit above the break-in rpm limit up hills. Would it be possible to take some short trips on more level ground to run the miles up?

 

Ahh... yes, i cant wait for my MCS. the rollback screw you manuever to annoying drivers.... makes their eyes pop out of their heads.

My last stick was a 88 camaro. It had RWD... how do you e-brake a RWD car??? lol was difficult to work with in traffic on a hill. Darn. im not looking forward to that one part of new purchase forgot about it all.

ideally, you should always use the E break on a hill in case your foot slips off the brake. I think drivers ed. teaches this as the proper way to drive

 

I don't think that standard driver's ed. courses teach anything about the proper way to drive.

Sadly, driver's ed. in our country is all about turn signals, parallel parking, and coming to a complete stop at an intersection, but very little about how to handle a car in life threatening or even day to day situations.

Never once was I asked to brake hard to avoid an object nor was I taught how to regain control of a sliding car. . . .

Thankfully, my instructors on the race track have taught me a few things.

 

I am glad you said that about your Z3. I also have been driving manual since before I could leagally drive. (my aunt(mom's best friend) who I miss very much tough me on my driveway when I was a kid....she was a great lady ) I have even driven 10spd, 13spd, and 18spd tractor trailers....please do not take this as look at what I can do but rather the point I am trying to make is THEY ALL TOOK TIME TO LEARN......all manuals are different. We are still trying to get used to starting the Mini from a stop and off a hill. So no matter if you have been shifting for a day or 20 years it still will take time getting used to.

Have fun learning!

Practice is the only thing that will help.

 

But if you mis-judge the distance and hit the car behind you, your car now has collision damage.... It might be one thing with a beater; but a MINI?

If the RWD car comes with a hand-operated e-Brake (Corvette does; but don't know about the Camaro), it is a piece of cake. Foot-operated e-Brake is another matter entirely.

Another reason to use the e-Brake method. I don't remember my drivers ed (1972 era) class teaching about using an e-Brake for parallel parking on hills. I had to learn that little trick on my own. (Necessity is truely the mother of invention....)

 

I was never able to do the e-brake trick on hills. I suppose it's mainly because I learned to drive stick in an older Subaru with the Hill-Holder clutch feature (Brake-on, clutch-in, release brake: clutch holds the brake until released. Great learning feature! ) and never needed to. Then, after awhile, I simply stopped thinking about it and stopped using the hill-holder. I'll stall it once in awhile (we all do... ), but generally as long as I don't think about the fact I'm on a hill, I'm fine. I've started on some really steep hills w/o rolling back at all.

In other words: practice, practice, practice.

 

Interesting. Personally, I think Subaru's system is/was better. The clutch would hold the brake on indefinitely until released. 2 seconds... 2 minutes... whatever... I'm not sure how it worked, but I'm guessing that with technology circa 1980 in a fairly cheap car, I doubt it was very complicated.

FWIW, I'm a self-taught stick driver. My father drove a stick ('78 Datsun F10) and tried to teach me, but that car was very difficult ot learn on. Regardless, I seem to get many miles out of clutches. My last Acura was traded in with 229K on the original clutch.

 

AH, you CANT use an ebreak on a hill while stopping at a light with a RWD car like the camaro. You can while you veg there, but when it comes to now speeding up out away, you have to remember your e break (it has one by the shifter like a regular modern car) is breaking your power wheels..... kinda difficult to get pressure on them and ease off the e break with them locked up.

fwd ebreak is much easier.

anyways, yes, drivers ed in NY showed that if you brought a stick shift. actually, it was part of the test if you brought a stick shift to it.

 

You can still use the e-Brake to "hold" the car in place until the engine/clutch is sufficiently engaged to avoid roll-back/stalling. That is the same principle as Hill Assist in the E46 BMWs (which happen to be RWD cars). The difference between the e-Brake procedure and Hill Assist is that as you observe, the drive wheels on the MINI are not restrained, which gives the driver more control over the process than would be available with Hill Assist. But the slightly lower level of control (with Hill Assist applying the brakes to the drive wheels) will not result in any significant degradation of exiting a parallel parking space on a hill.

 

I wonder how long clutches would last in places that had hills (like San Francisco). Holding the vehicle in place with the clutch for 2 minutes would seem to be a certain way to shred the clutch friction plate.

 

Ooh, I just read that the 2007 MINIs will come with Hill Assist standard. JEALOUS!

 

I recently relocated from NYC to Pittsburgh...where there are many more hills. Not as bad as San Fran, but noticaby more than your typical metro area.

But it's not the hills, it's the short approach ramp to my apartment's garage that really drives me batty. First of all, the slope is way steeper than what would be deemed safe by today's standards, which wouldn't be a problem except for one little detail. The card reader where you swipe your card to raise the garage door is midway up the ramp before you get to the door!

It could have just as easily been at the base of the ramp. So everytime I need to pull into the garage I have to stop midway up the ramp of death. I get lots of practice using the E-brake method. Otherwise I roll backwards into pedestrians, or even worse...passing traffic.

I'm willing to bet the person who located it there never drove stick.