In my MC automatic, when I am parallel parking, shifting to drive from reverse there is about a two second pause before the car moves forward after I release the brake. Worse yet, I find myself stepping on the accelerator harder and almost crashing into the car in front of me. Prevents me from "Speedy Gonzales" style parallel parking. :impatient

I guess I should disable DSC when I'm parallel parking?

 

if i am not mistaken, the hill assist only applies to the 6spd MT.

 

That's what I wasn't sure about. Hill assist would make more sense in MT. If I don't have it, what causes the delay in my automatic?

 

Well what I don't get is that you said that after you put it into reverse, there's a two second delay before it moves FORWARD...and you almost crash the car in front of you. The better question is why is your car moving forward when you go from D to R?

 

All MINI's with DSC have hill assist regardless of the transmission. My MCSa has it and I feel it kick in every time I back out of my parking spot which is set on a slight decline. If you give it some gas you can avoid the 2 second delay. I generally just take my foot off the brake, wait for hill assist to truly release the brakes, then let it coast back. If I'm in a rush I give it gas to override the hill assist but then it tends to send my MINI flying out of the spot.

 

No problems there. As I wrote, I'm shifting to drive from reverse. Easy to confuse with shifting from drive to reverse.

Thanks Msteadman for the clarification. I also now just wait 2 sec for the car to move. Other than hill assist, it is fun to feel DSC working when I take a turn too fast.

 

When I tried it out yesterday, disabling DSC didn't disable the hill assist.

 

Thanks for the update. Cars these days sometimes baby us a little too much. I just read about the lane-departure feature of the Infiniti EX that actually will actively make some corrections. How about if I want to gently nudge a little over to give some bicyclist more room?

 

I can see how hill assist would be useful in a MT, but in an AT? Also, I can also see when it would be a pain like in this situation...too bad turning off DSC doesn't deactivate hill assist. Honestly, DSC is nice, but hill assist is not really needed if you know how to drive stick.

 

Actually, thinking about it again, in an MT the hill assist automatically disengages when you press the gas pedal. So maybe this is some other sort of problem you're experiencing lacning?

It's triggered by depressing the clutch too, I don't know how the system would even activate in an AT?


@russr - Yeah, it's not really needed if you know what you're doing, but with all of the really steep hills in downtown Seattle I can say it's pretty nice when there's a ridiculously expensive car behind you. There's always the e-brake, but it's nice to have a step eliminated

 

nicknbecka, yeah in Seattle and San Fransisco type places I can see it being really useful. In NJ, there aren't too many really steep hills, but if this does disengage when you hit the gas then that's good at least.

 

And DSC and LSD aren't needed if you knew how to corner. And AAA tow coverage isn't needed if you knew how to drive in snow. And an extra key fob wouldn't be needed if you remembered where you left your other set.

 

Sure thing. Yea, it is really cool to feel DSC saving my **** after realizing that I made a stupid mistake. Especially with the combination of leaves and rain that we've been getting here, I can feel it kick in pretty often. The nice thing is it does seem to have a pretty high threshold - even when I want to drive spirited I still don't feel the need to turn it off. It definitely allows you some measure of fun before stepping in to reign things back in line (literally).

Can't wait to see how it performs in the snow and ice which should be here shortly.

I'm not sure either. Hill assist seems to be a very smart system as it activates on even the slightest decline/incline. Perhaps there's some type of inclination sensor? It deactivates by pressing the gas, just like with a MT. Although I'm not sure how it assists us AT drivers very much.

 

I hope there is supposed to be alot of humor in there as I disagree with every statement!

 

Maybe if Isaac Newton wasn't born...Or if you had two accelerator pedals and four brake pedals. And AAA isn't needed by people who don't know how to drive in snow, but people who don't know how to STOP in snow.

Are you sure that's hill assist and not just the transmission doing its thing? I could do without it at all. If you can't start on an incline, or are clutchically challenged, you just grab the E-brake till you let the clutch out. If I could, I'd disable it completely.

 

Yep, it's definitely hill assist as after 2 seconds you can actually hear an electrical click then the brakes releasing. I've only felt it in my parking spot so I'll try backing into the spot tomorrow to see if it does the same thing in drive.

 

I'm not saying they don't. But I certainly can't understand what the purpose of it would be. I've never seen an automatic that could roll backwards in drive.

 

Same... The only reasoning I can see is that BMW/MINI would prefer to make one standard DSC/Hill Assist module for all MINI's, regardless of their transmission. Especially since, in my limited experience with it at least, hill assist tends to be more of an annoyance (albeit a very slight one that's easy to ignore) than any type of assistance.

 

Actually I find our 05 MCS will

 

I do love hill-assist!!! If it gets in the way of parallel parking, yes, just turn off DSC, especially since you're in the process of parking...it'll automatically re-engage when you re-start the car. I have a manual tranny...it'd be fun to let hill-assist help out when parallel parking on an incline, but such a scenario is highly unlikely around here.

 

I learned to parallel park in NYC, and lived 10 years in Boston (both homes to lousy drivers), so I don't need no stinkin' hill-assist. How long does it take to move your foot from the brake to the gas pedal?

And with no turbo lag, the engine is spinning in no time.

 

I've never seen one that couldn't.

 

Maybe it's just that I've never owned an automatic, and when I've driven them, when I put it in drive I only expect to go forward.

But now that I think about it, if I'm parking on an uphill grade in an automatic, I don't remember having to shift out of drive to roll backwards.

My mind isn't what it used to be. It takes more time to shift it into drive...

 

NYC is not a hilly place, parallel parking there is not the same as doing it in Seattle or SF or one of those places. Like someone posted above, in place like SF and Seattle, I'm sure hill assist is very useful.

 

Because of the fluid coupling in an automatic transmission, if the engine is just idling in "Drive", there's not enough torque transmitted to the wheels to keep the car from rolling backwards on an incline. That's why you didn't have to shift into reverse to get it to roll backwards.

Of course, it varies from car to car. In my old Mercedes, if I had the idle set too high, the car would still pull itself up a fair incline, even with my foot off the gas.