Studebaker had an extra they called a Hill Holder. I had a 1941 Commander with overdrive which had one. When you stopped on a steep hill you could take your foot off the brake and as long as you had the clutch depressed it would not roll back. I do not know how it worked but do know it cost very little extra at that time, less than 10 dollars. Why does none of the auto companies have this on their current standard shift vehicles? I never had a bit of trouble with it and it had fairly high mileage for a car at that time (over 70k).
I had a 47 Champion with hill holder, it was a great thing. It somehow held the brakes on. I think they should use it today. However, I always buy an anutomatic.
I know BMW has a similar feature on at least one model (X5) I am confident others have it also,what I am not confident of is if the technique is the same.BMW did offer the X5 (6 cyl only)in standard shift,I don’t know how popular it was.
What style of vehicle would you like to see this featured offered on? (you do narrow it down a bit when you say “standard shift”
I would say any car (or truck) with a manual transmission.
Don’t think you will find it on Accords,Corollas,Rio’s,or any of the economy cars,I have never seen it on a pickup(but possible) I think it is possible Subaru may offer it,not a low end feature.
This feature for BMW was mainly to maintain descent control,not a “roll back” feature.I am comming to the conclusion I did not correctly interpet the original “hill holders” purpose.
In 1941, the money people were overwhelmed by the authority of the engineers. Now, an option like a hill holder could put a company out of business, so the money people put a stop to such foolish cash disposal. We have other safety junk on cars now because the government mandates them. Nobody gets a price advantage that way. If Studebaker had the sense to change their name to Lexus, they might have gotten away with charging more for their cars. Besides, the thing would be controlled by a computer for maximum failure. It could take a week to get from Ventura to San Diego if one more computer chip goes into every car.
This feature has been standard equipment for many years on all manual transmission Subarus.
In fact, Subaru calls the feature…are you ready?..Hill Holder! Obviously, Studebaker’s copyright on this name expired long ago.