New car's clutch: why/how/what is this "feature"?

[Joey_P]

From here:
The vehicle stability assist (VSA®) system helps stabilize the vehicle during cornering, and helps maintain traction while accelerating on loose or slippery road surfaces

In certain unusual conditions when your vehicle gets stuck in shallow mud or fresh snow, it may be easier to free it with the VSA® temporarily switched off.

[kayaker]

Well, I’m way happier with the hill assist thing turned off. Starting out on a hill is much smoother, paradoxically. Once you’ve successfully shut it down, it’s pretty straightforward to go back and forth to compare.

I will turn it back on if my gf ever wants to drive it. She can drive a stick, but the hill thing would help her confidence.

[Machine_Elf]

@Joey_P

I’m almost positive that’s what the manual says. Turn it off when you’re stuck.

This. The idea is that when you’re stuck (0 MPH) on a hill or in a hole, the spinning tires can drag all the loose mud/gravel/snow/sand out of the way so they can get down to a solid surface and gain some traction. This is difficult to do if the car won’t let you spin the wheels.

Traction control is useful when you’re accelerating on a slippery surface and don’t want the drive wheels to spin.

Electronic Stability Control (often turned on/off together with traction control) is the now-mandatory feature that keeps the car pointed in the direction it’s traveling. It can’t do magic: if you hit a cloverleaf ramp at 60 MPH, you’re going to leave the pavement, but you’ll do it nose-first, so your car is less likely to roll over (it’s also more likely to hit other things head-on instead of side-on, the former being a much more survivable impact). The name differs from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the idea is the same. The drivers who benefit most from this system are the ones who never internalized the “steer into the skid” concept; with the prevalence of front-wheel-drive vehicles these days, that’s a lot of drivers.

[Inigo_Montoya]

@GaryM

And as for using the hand brake, many these days are foot operated so it’s kind of difficult to use starting on a hill.

Foot operated “hand brakes” are of the devil. They make drifting incredibly complicated and unsafe.

My wife’s new Dart has that no rollin’ back clutch. The whole car is stuffed with gadgets and stuff to make it better, which makes it the very definition of “meh” to me. That’s pretty much what I think of the new clutch. kayaker, just find yourself an old International Scout and enjoy yourself. You could probably pick up a nice restoration for about half the price of a new Jeep.

[Rick]

@Machine_Elf

This. The idea is that when you’re stuck (0 MPH) on a hill or in a hole, the spinning tires can drag all the loose mud/gravel/snow/sand out of the way so they can get down to a solid surface and gain some traction. This is difficult to do if the car won’t let you spin the wheels.

Traction control is useful when you’re accelerating on a slippery surface and don’t want the drive wheels to spin.

Electronic Stability Control (often turned on/off together with traction control) is the now-mandatory feature that keeps the car pointed in the direction it’s traveling. It can’t do magic: if you hit a cloverleaf ramp at 60 MPH, you’re going to leave the pavement, but you’ll do it nose-first, so your car is less likely to roll over (it’s also more likely to hit other things head-on instead of side-on, the former being a much more survivable impact). The name differs from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the idea is the same. The drivers who benefit most from this system are the ones who never internalized the “steer into the skid” concept; with the prevalence of front-wheel-drive vehicles these days, that’s a lot of drivers.

Wait what was that again?

Traction control is useful when you’re accelerating on a slippery surface and don’t want the drive wheels to spin.

So what is slipperier than mud or fresh snow?
Here is what Toyota has to say about traction control (2014 Camry)

■ TRAC (Traction Control) Helps to maintain drive power and prevent the drive wheels from spinning when starting the vehicle or accelerating on slippery roads.
If the vehicle gets stuck in fresh snow or mud, the TRAC/VSC systems may reduce power from the engine to the wheels. You may need to turn the system off to enable you to rock the vehicle in order to free it.

Here is the wording from Joey P’s Honda link above

In certain unusual conditions when your vehicle gets stuck in shallow mud or fresh snow, it may be easier to free it with the VSA® temporarily switched off. When the VSA® system is off, the traction control system is also off. ** You should only attempt to free your vehicle with the VSA® off if you are not able to free it when the VSA® is on. **

See the bolded part?
I can tell you for a fact from both teaching this stuff and from going out and purposely getting stuck with traction control off then turning it on to get unstuck, you are way way more likely to get unstuck using the traction control that you will by turning it off.
Most people don’t really know how to utilize the traction control to it maximum potential. What you want to do is give the car just enough gas to barely brake one tire free and hold the gas pedal there. The system will automatically shift power from where to wheel to get you unstuck. What people do wrong is they floor the gas, which will take you out of traction control and allow the wheels to spin uselessly.
Also rocking an automatic trans can on some cars damage the auto trans.

[gigi]

What about when one wheel is in mud and the other three aren’t – and it spins and spins and the others, they do nothing? If it has traction control, you follow what you just said, and if not, you need a tow?

[Rick]

The way the traction control system works (systems vary, this is how the ones I am most familiar with work)
Throttle opens, one wheel starts to spin ABS pump turns on and brakes the spinning wheel just enough that torque is forced to the other wheel.
If just one wheel is in the mud, car drives off.
if both wheels are in the mud after a moment the other wheel will start to spin and the ABS will brake that wheel just enough to get the torque back to the first wheel.
Lather rinse repeat as the car walks it way out of the puddle. You can feel the car alternatively pull a little bit one way or the other as the power moves from one side to the other.

Now that I think about it, there have been some very low line traction control systems that only modulate the throttle, which would help in a slick situation but are not nearly as effective as the system described above.