Hill Assist

[MrKnoe]

Hill start does not have an icon on the dash it is automatically on When you start your car. To disable it just go into the vehicle settings in the menu. Same with the traction control.

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[wesmst-2]

two things.

how do it turn off hill start assist?? I have a fiesta st2.

secondly has any body drove a good distance with only drl's on? iv done this a couple of times :(

[Philf1]

If you want to turn if off go into your menu and the option is in there.

[NQbbe]

I personally like hillstart - I don't rely on it, I just catch myself thinking "oh right, that's nice" when it engages.

I never use the handbrake on hills, I just switch from the brake to the throttle rapidly and normally don't roll more than a few inches even on steep hills. With hillstart assist I now roll exactly 0 inches though :D

As for DRLs I have the Zetec S which (at least in Denmark) comes with LED DRLs - I actually think these look great, even in daylight, so I'm pretty pleased with that part as well.

Also I think (not 100% certain on this) that you're required by law to have some sort of lights on the front of the car in Denmark at all times (any Danes correct me if I'm wrong).

Since I always have the lights on, I prefer using the LED DRLs - partly because they use less power, so this means reduced load on the generator.

But mainly because my dipped headlight bulbs are Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited, and these have a limited lifespan compared to the stock bulbs. This way I they'll last longer.

Guess I'm somewhat easy to please actually :D

[DAL150N]

Great feature! Buys me a bit of time when my steel toecap work boot gets stuck under the brake pedal! My first addition for the new Fez - more suitable footwear. I remember now why I previously had an auto :)

[GrumpyTrucker]

Personally I think hill assist and all these fancy supposed driver aids are getting to be a joke.

They just make drivers lazy and try to pass the resonsibility onto a computer, that way, if one day the system doesnt work they can blame the car for letting them roll into the vehicle behind instead of admitting they are crap drivers and have no clutch control.

It would be the equivalent of someone saying, "you didnt have drl's on so I didnt see you coming". The fact that they were the only moving vehicle on the road and it was broad daylight was irrelevent

Its not as if we arent taught this when we learn to drive. Past of the driving test is a hill start.

If people can't do clutch control and hill starts, get an automatic

Couldn't agree more. Mate of mine was in a hired Golf yesterday - adaptive cruise control, lane guidance, proximity warnings the lot. He was annoyed with it all after half an hour. Way too much reliance being put on something that can just fail. Wonder if insurance companies favour or penalise cars with all these additions, since it makes the driver less attentive.

I will say though that hill assist can be a good thing in the right place - I've driven trucks with it - but I'm not 100% convinced there's a huge need for it in a family car.

Great feature! Buys me a bit of time when my steel toecap work boot gets stuck under the brake pedal! My first addition for the new Fez - more suitable footwear. I remember now why I previously had an auto :)

I'm not even allowed in the driver's seat of our car in my steelies. Have to keep a spare pair of trainers in the boot. She was very nice about it, but I wasn't sure about the look in her eye :)

[stevegtuk]

I will say though that hill assist can be a good thing in the right place - I've driven trucks with it - but I'm not 100% convinced there's a huge need for it in a family car.

I wouldn't want them in a truck. There's such a satisfying feeling when you get the hiss from the air brakes, much better than a big bore exhaust

Also I wouldn't want to rely on it with a full load. Admittedly the trucks I drove fully loaded were only about 15 ton but it could still cause a lot of damage if a hill assist function failed and I wasn't quick enough to react

[GrumpyTrucker]

I wouldn't want them in a truck. There's such a satisfying feeling when you get the hiss from the air brakes, much better than a big bore exhaust

Also I wouldn't want to rely on it with a full load. Admittedly the trucks I drove fully loaded were only about 15 ton but it could still cause a lot of damage if a hill assist function failed and I wasn't quick enough to react

To be honest, I wasn't keen but with more and more trucks being automatics these days it can be a help. Still, out of habit I use handbrake / accelerator to get going. Rarely roll back. The ones I used were new tech so you actually had to press a button on the dash to activate it each time. Press a button, release handbrake, accelerate. Weird