Hill Start Assist

[kevin h]

Well,

Had the car for 8 months and have just discovered Hill Start Assist.

I've always been worried about a set of traffic lights set on a very steep hill and the slight roll back that I inevitably got.

Well, not any more.

Anybody else thought they didn't have the facility, ore unsure how to engage it?

[RNS]

Salesmen never said anything about it was only one i pressed hard on the brake pedal when sat at lights i found it by mistake on the test drive. cool thing aint it.

wish my past AUTO cars had it

[kevin h]

Salesmen never said anything about it was only one i pressed hard on the brake pedal when sat at lights i found it by mistake on the test drive. cool thing aint it.

wish my past AUTO cars had it

yeh, dealer didn't know much when the car first came out.

The lights I'm on about are at Rock Hill in Mansfield (A617)

[RNS]

yeh, dealer didn't know much when the car first came out.

The lights I'm on about are at Rock Hill in Mansfield (A617)

Yer that be the place or shoulder of mutter hill in Annesley :(

i take it you dealt with Ron brooks Toyota i didn't buy from there in the end they never phoned back i ordered mine from Worksop Toyota they been brill.

[wooski]

A brilliant feature - evens works on 12% inclines.

[timberwolf]

As a Gen 2 owner, I've always wondered what's the best way to handle steep hill starts on those cars that do not have the assist feature? Is it just very quickly move my foot from brake to accelerator?

[ian rooke]

Hi as the parking brake is operated by a foot pedal use it as a you would a clutch it works for me.

[Seamaster73]

I must admit to be being a bit foxed by this.

Traditional automatics don't require "hill start assist" — what's different about the Prius that it does?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Nothing, other than maybe the weird handbrake.

I used to drive a mercedes and that had had a similar hand brake but you would pull a lever to release it. This wasn't a problem on a hill whereas the Prius system would be trickier without Hill Start Assist.

[ian rooke]

Hi the Prius will hold itself on a slight hill as most automatics will but it will roll back on the steeper hills hence the hill start assist.

[Seamaster73]

I have a Mercedes automatic, and even on a quite steep hill the traditional auto "creep" prevents any rolling back. No use of foot or handbrake necessary (other than to hold the car against the creep, as per any auto).

Is there no creep on the Prius?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I have a Mercedes automatic, and even on a quite steep hill the traditional auto "creep" prevents any rolling back. No use of foot or handbrake necessary (other than to hold the car against the creep, as per any auto).

Is there no creep on the Prius?

Depends on the size of your engine in the Mercedes (or any other automatic). I've had diesel merc auto's that hold on slight hills but slowly roll back on steeper ones. I've also driven 6.0 V12 Mercs and big V8 BMW's and I'm pretty sure they would start to ease back slightly on very steep hills. The Prius does have 'creep' built in and on a flat road it will start to crawl, will hold on a very slight incline, but will start to roll back on steeper slopes.

[wooski]

I have a Mercedes automatic, and even on a quite steep hill the traditional auto "creep" prevents any rolling back. No use of foot or handbrake necessary (other than to hold the car against the creep, as per any auto).

Is there no creep on the Prius?

Yes there is but not powerful enough to hold the car on a steep hill, though it does on gentle ones. I don't use the hill start assist that often. But when I do it works very well and is easy to use. The creep is from the electric motor only (even when the car is warming up)

[Seamaster73]

Thanks for the replies/clarification. That's interesting.

[johalareewi]

I have a Mercedes automatic, and even on a quite steep hill the traditional auto "creep" prevents any rolling back. No use of foot or handbrake necessary (other than to hold the car against the creep, as per any auto).

Is there no creep on the Prius?

Interesting question. There is no need for the Prius to have creep (or engine drag when you take your foot off the pedal) but I guess so it acts more like a conventional automatic, Toyota have programmed in the creep and drag features. Hill start assist is handy for when the creep isn't enough on very steep hills. It also works when reversing uphill and the creep is working against you

[timberwolf]

Interesting question. There is no need for the Prius to have creep (or engine drag when you take your foot off the pedal) but I guess so it acts more like a conventional automatic, Toyota have programmed in the creep and drag features. Hill start assist is handy for when the creep isn't enough on very steep hills. It also works when reversing uphill and the creep is working against you

I think you are correct in your guess that the Toyota engineers wanted to create the same feel as a conventional automatic i.e. the Prius shouldn't be any different to drive than any other car (as long as you live North America where most are automatics).

The creep in a conventional automatic was as I understand it a by-product of the fluid torque converter - and I don't know if the creep was something the engineers really wanted? Engine braking in conventional automatics is a relatively recent innovation, I seem to recall that it was something that became possible with electronic control of automatic gearbox. Driving the older conventional gearboxes certainly required a lot more use of the brakes, as you didn't have engine braking (just the drag of air and friction of bearings, etc) to do such things as match your speed with a car that you were following.

Thanks for the comments on the foot operated parking brake. I'm not terribly keen on using that in a just about to move away situation. I've got the hang of it in a "memory" muscle sort of way, but I still find it a clumsy system, where sometimes I'm not entirely sure whether I've set or disengaged it properly, and sometimes if I'm not sure I'll redo the operation to feel if it was only set on the first notch or not.