I've tried it a couple of times, just to be certain- and disabling DSC doesn't disable the hill assist, at least in my car. Not sure for previous years or production runs...

However, it disengages as soon as I shift into reverse, or press on the gas even slightly (caught myself off guard with an accidental light tap on the gas once...), but again, an auto may be different.

I've driven automatic transmissions that will avoid rolling backward before, as ScottRiqui said, it all depends on the car. Our Durango needs a pretty steep incline before it'll roll backward while in drive- when it's in four wheel low, it'd probably crawl up over a parking block in idle

 

NYC isn't, but Boston had plenty...

 

Does hill assist only come with DSC? Or is it standard on every MC?

 

Only comes with DSC.

 

Can DSC be added after the fact? IE: dealer can install it.

 

No. I'm 99% sure it can't

 

Yeah- I bet it'd be cheaper to trade-in on another car with it than it would be to attempt a retro-fit.

 

That is why I feel the four option must haves are DSC, LSD, Xenon and Rear fog lights.

 

Yeah. I have the first three and kicking myself that I didn't get rear fogs. If they had told me that it filled in the blank toggle switch, I would have definitely gotten them.

 

Same here - I don't really care about the rear fogs, but I would have gotten them just to fill in the toggle bank, too.

 

Exact reason I got them. That and I don't like how MINI puts those 'caps' on the back to fill in where they would be.

 

I always laugh at that. I don't sit there all day staring at the toggle bank. And not one passenger has asked why there's a spot missing. Doesn't bother me at all that by law we can't order the rear fogs here in Oregon.

 

I learned to drive in SF with a 3 spd on the column Ford Falcon station wagon. POS! I could parallel park on any hill using the e-brake with no problem.
I now have the mcs with auto, it suck in So Cal with the traffic. My left leg would be twice as big as my right.

So, I took my mcs to SF last week and drove up a very steep hill. I took my foot off the brake and it held for about two seconds before rolling backwards. Tried it again on another hill and acc. before hill assist release and had no problem.
Great feature even though it really is not necessary with auto.

 

I filled in that spot with the AUX input for my stereo