Greetings. I have a 2018 4Runner TRD Off Road Premium, and according to the manual, it's equipped with something called "Hill Start Assist Control". I thought that it's meant to prevent the car from rolling backwards when you're on an incline and take your foot off the brake. My vehicle has never done that. It starts rolling backwards the very second I take my foot off the brake pedal. I've gotten in the habit of using my left foot on the brake when I'm taking off on an incline. I had a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and it had that feature, so I naively thought the 4Runner would behave the same.

So when I had the car in for a 15K service at the Toyota dealership, I asked the service rep about it. He thought I was confusing it with the Downhill Assist Control. When I got back home, I looked at the sticker that was originally on my vehicle, and it said clearly that it's equipped with the Hill Start Assist feature. So I called the dealership back and took the car in again. I was talking to two different service reps there and was getting different answers to whether or not my vehicle was equipped with it. One of the guys pointed to the CRAWL control knobs, and said that it was the same. I told him that CRAWL control was for 4 wheeling, and would only engage when the car is in 4 wheel drive low. Anyway, long story just a little longer, they took the car in and had two mechanics verify that the car is equipped with it, and that it was working properly. When I picked the car up, the service rep explained that it isn't exactly what I thought it was. He said that the feature essentially brakes automatically if the vehicle is rolling backwards.

While this is useful for preventing the vehicle from picking up speed, it's not very useful for helping you start on an incline. I can live without this feature, no problem, but I find it very odd that a company like Toyota would 1) advertise a feature that doesn't work as explained, and 2) barely document how it's supposed to work, 3) not train the service reps to know about this feature. The only documentation in the handbook is a blurb like "Helps to prevent the vehicle from rolling backward when starting on an incline or slippery slope". This sounds logical, but according to the service rep, this isn't really what it does.

So, I'm wondering if this feature just doesn't work on my vehicle, if the Toyota service rep doesn't know how it's supposed to work, or if this is the expected functionality. Would love to read about what other 5th Gen 4Runner owners have to say. Thanks.