I've had my 06 for about 5 months now, haven't closely been following the 07 model.

But in looking at the current R & T which gives an overview of all new cars, I noticed that the new Mini has as standard in manual cars the Hill Holder feature.

Now THAT'S a feature I wish was standard on my car. I've owned over 30 manual transmission cars, including several Lotus and MG's, and I have to say the clutch on my Mini is the trickest to modulate with the throttle when trying to start from stop on a steep hill for a traffic light.

I owned a Subaru years ago with the Hill Holding feature, and loved it. I notice BMW now has it in some of their cars, and now the Mini does. I don't know why every manual transmission car does not have this feature.

 

Amen.

Maybe they don't want to lose out on all the money they make replacing clutches.

 

With all the new electronic braking systems, hill holder features should be more common. It should just be a few dollars of parts if any and some programming.

Do you find the ebrake that hard to use though? Would you actually pay for hill holding? Around here you don't need any help as it's flat but I know there are hills out there somewhere.

 

 

You've owned intersting cars over the years. What models of Lotus? MG?

I've owned considerably less than 30 cars over the years, but I can't say that I've found hill stops to be any harder than in other cars that I've owned. Easier than most due to the low overall vehicle weight (Maybe the MINI is a heavy car to you depending on what Lotuses you've driven?)

Do you use the hand brake? This should work just as well, shouldn't it?

 

The earlier Mini's do have a hill holder feature. It's called the hand brake!

Learned that technique driving MG's around San Francisco.

 

Yeah, some neat cars, 3 Lotus Europas: a 69 S2, a 70 S2, and a 74 Twin Cam. 84 Turbo Esprit. A black 2005 Elise, and currently a yellow 2005 Elise.

70 MGBGT, the only year with the two piece chrome rear bumper. Loved that car.

Also had one of the first Honda CRX's when they first came out, a Datsun 510 sedan (the poor man's BMW 2002), even a Fiero. Had a Crossfire before I bought the first of the two Elise's.

The Mini is a hoot though.

 

I've never had a manual with the hill holder. I have no idea what it is so I guess that's why I don't miss it! I've owned 12 cars in my life and 6 were manuals. I don't find the MINI any better or worse on hills than any of my previous sticks (Volvo, Toyota, Datsun, Nissan, Honda and Chevy, the Chevy was a company car I did not own it).
How does it work? Or how does one operate it?
Annette

 

I would definitely agree that the mini is a little harder to start on a steep hill. It seems the electronic throttle doesn't respond as quickly when there is no load on the engine so its a little harder to bring the revs up quickly. on a really steep hill, i use the heel-toe method to bring up the revs before letting off the brake. the e-brake works well too, especially when parallel parking on a hill, and you have to wiggle in or out of a tight spot.

 

I have a BMW E90 and E60 that both have the new "standard option" BMW Brake Assist system. My personal transmission choice is a manual, but Brake Assist comes on all the BMW transmissions regardless of whether it is an automatic, manual, or SMG. Let me just tell you that I love the system!

What Brake Assist does on the BMWs is not only limited to holding your car in place for 2 seconds on an incline/decline (when depressing both the clutch and brake). By doing so, it gives you enough time to transition your right foot from brake to gas w/o rolling the car back forward/backward. This comes in handy when trying to parallel park on a steep grade. I didn't have many problems to begin with, but I anticipate having to over-rev the MINI's smaller engine to accomplish the same task...I do not use the hand brake.

Anyway, Brake Assist also:

-pulses the brakes in the rain every now and then to maintain gripping power. You don't even feel it happening.
-maintains even amount of braking pressure in the brake lines even when braking hard...I do not know if this would eliminate the need for steel brake cables. Also comes in handy if you suddenly lift from the throttle, the system preps the pressure in the brakes in case you need to do an emergency stop.
-and there is one more thing the system does in the turns in conjunction with the ABS, but the feature slips my mind right now.

The only drawback to Brake Assist is that the wife will become more emboldened to drive your manual transmission cars

Brake Assist will be a great selling feature on the 07, but I wanted to be sure to get an 06...I welcome a challenge when it comes to driving a manual transmission!
-