Manual starting on hill
 

I grew up with manual transmissions but I always had a fair amount of anxiety starting on hills with cars behind me. I had a Miata that made it easier with a well placed hand brake. Is hill start assist the answer to my anxiety? Will a manual roll backwards on a hill?

It will help on the first attempt. You aren’t going to be able to go in/out of gear several times.

Like you I have been driving a manual transmission for a long time. The hill assist is a yes no thing. Yes it gives you about four seconds to get on and off the clutch which is more than enough time. The only draw back is if the incline is not enough it will not activate. 2 or 3 degrees of incline won’t engage it. Which sucks. I know using the clutch to hold it on a hill is a “no-no” but I’ve been doing it forever. You can however set the parking brake and pull off against it. The parking brake will automatically release.

I'm pretty sure to use the hill assist feature you have to press the brake pedal pretty hard to get it to engage

The hill assist takes some getting used to. It activates whenever the car senses a steep enough incline. It's possible to have a very slight incline, just enough for the car to inch away, and the hill assist not activate. You don't need it in those cases though.

After getting used to it, I never had it fail to activate when it should. You can't feather the clutch though if hill assist is activated. Once you give it gas and let the clutch out, hill assist will not reactivate if you fail to get the car off the hill after it releases. It works, but I miss having a hand brake.

My experience the hill assist working is random at best, I tried the hard press with no joy. I honestly can live without it but it will occasionally show up to the party and get in the way. If you're on a steep incline and need it (someone on your ass) use the parking brake as mentioned above, not the most elegant method but at least it will work consistently.

That's one b**** I have about the electronic e-brake -- no ability to slowly release it as you get the car into gear. I didn't realize how much I used it in the past until this car...

The lack of a proper handbrake is my biggest problem with the car

You are doing it wrong. No need to ride the clutch to blackness. And yes the E-brake works just fine if you know how to drive with the man pedal.

You have become compliant, adapt, learn. This manual is super easy to drive. Almost too easy... no lift shift, hill assist, e-brake assist, the list of nannies goes on, adapt or go buy a dinosaur but for the love of God stop spreading the myths about e-brake.

What am I missing? Engage the emergency brake, crank it, raise rpm a bit and release clutch slowly as you disengage emer. brake, keeping rpm at say 2000, drive away. Unless there's something unusual about the Camaro, this 100 year old method should work. Practice.

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Anyone having issues driving a modern GM, Ford or FCA (what ever it is called now) manual, buy an automatic and be done with it!

Ok, Bob from an old guy to another, take the car out to the flats and learn the clutch action. Get good at it, it is really easy once you learn the action. I mean really get the feel for it, you should be able to do this in a few runs if you really know a manual. If not take a bit longer.

Then find an incline with no traffic, there has to be one near you, and learn the Hill Assist. If you previously learned the clutch action you will be golden. Hill assist is like training wheels. I actually hate it, but learned how it works and it even tells you it is active.

Next learn how the e-brake works. It is a faster release than the hill assist but if you learned the clutch action and the hill assist you should be golden. Personally I would learn e-brake before hill assist but - hill assist is a given.

Doesn’t the e brake disengage when you pop the clutch?

Take it easy there, hoss. What myth are ya'all talking 'bout? Are you hittin' the devil weed again?