Disable hill assist

[attrapereves]

Does anyone else find the hill assist feature annoying? Is there a way to disable it?

Without the feature, you know exactly how much gas to give the car to prevent stalling on a hill and to prevent the car from lunging forward.

However, because of the feature, I often find that I give the car too little or sometime too much throttle. This causes the car to shudder and almost stall, or lunge forward.

I can rarely get a clean takeoff on a hill unless I wait the 2 seconds for the dumb thing to release.

 

[rdss]

I've beaten the feature in my STi by letting off the brake with the clutch in and in neutral and then slipping it into first and rolling away. Not sure if it's the same with the Sonic but it's worth a try. I can disable it in my car but don't want the light on all the time.

 

[attrapereves]

I've beaten the feature in my STi by letting off the brake with the clutch in and in neutral and then slipping it into first and rolling away. Not sure if it's the same with the Sonic but it's worth a try. I can disable it in my car but don't want the light on all the time.

That probably will work. The feature only comes on when the car is in gear and the brake is enabled.

These features are designed to be helpful, but they actually make it less helpful.

 

[rdss]

They are helpful for a mediocre driver that has no real driving skills.

 

[$ub$onic]

They are helpful for a mediocre driver that has no real driving skills.

And yet my wife still has a hard time starting it on a hill

 

[ahtoxa]

They are helpful for a mediocre driver that has no real driving skills.

I don't know. Hill hold is neither here nor there for me. It's the first car I've ever had with it, so I don't need it, but it's not detrimental when it comes on either. No difference one way or another.

 

[Natesriv]

it's a bit odd to let off the brake and it holds.... I'm okay with it too...just a little eerie.

 

[Chevrolet Customer Care]

We appreciate your feedback, attrapereves. We've noted your experience within our system for future product knowledge. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any additional concerns with your Chevy Sonic.

Amber N.
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[08Bluesky]

An even sillier feature with an Automatic.
(both our Sonic & Encore have it)

 

[SuperFudd]

I have it?
I will have to go find me a hill and try it.

 

[attrapereves]

I have it?
I will have to go find me a hill and try it.

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think the car has to be on a certain angle.

Like I said before, the hill assist makes it difficult to judge how much gas to give the car.

The feature is even more useless on an automatic. I've only had an automatic roll back a few times and it was on a very steep hill in the mountains.

 

[SuperFudd]

Maybe there is something about Sonic automatics that makes it useful, in theory.
I have heard that autos go to neutral when stopped. It seems that mine (see below) does not do that.

 

[svzuki]

Generally you need to be on an 8% grade (which is actually fairly steep for general roads) and you have to apply enough brake pressure to hold the vehicle on the hill in the first place. Once the vehicle has actually come to a stop and isn't rolling at all. The ESC controller will hold that pressure you applied for 2 seconds. There is another release condition which can occur two ways. I am not sure how GM implemented it on this car. You either have to just depress the gas pedal or create enough drive line torque to eb able to accelerate the vehicle up that grade. That means that even if you tap the throttle, it may not release as you haven't pressed the throttle down far enough to prevent you from rolling backwards.

 

[Palmaris]

It just needs a light to tell you that it is activated.

 

[Stew]

I wasn't a fan of the hill assist at first but it's grown on me when I'm on some of the hills in Seattle. I've been driving manuals for many many years and would be fine without it though.

 

[Maddmatts]

Automatics can still roll backwards while in gear if the grade is steep enough. The torque convertor behaves like a slipping clutch at low RPM.

 

[Swordsmith]

I agree with Stew, I drove manuals for 25+ years without hill hold, I'm fine without it (and still don't have it on my 2005 F150), but it's nice.

However, I would like that light that tells you it's active, it is annoying to think it's there, but end up rolling backwards slightly because I was counting on it instead of being swift.