When we bought our Yeti, we were intrigued at how good or not it was going to be when taken off-road. Were the features all show but no go? Or was there actually some serious work that has been put into the off-road features? When we have used the Yeti on some green lanes, we had a small sneak-peek at how the hill descent works. The problem was, the hills were never normally steep enough or long enough to really get a good feel for it.

While we were at Tixover Quarry during a pay and play day, we found a decent hill to try it out on. Although we had a rough idea that the hill descent was good, we didn't realise just how good it was going to be! Let me start off with the cons...

• As with most hill descent programs, there is a small lag between coming off of the brakes and it kicking in. But this could be the way we are operating the car.

Now the pro's...

• It works in 1st, 2nd, 3rd which you would kind of expect. But it also works in neutral and reverse!

• Once the system has the car fully under control, it brings the car down at such a slow speed. This can be adjusted by using the brake or throttle. There wasn't enough of a hill for us to try this out on.

• On a firm surface, the braking is ultra smooth. It's not all jerky and grabby.

• When the gradient levels out, you can feel the brakes release and the system deactivate, but even that is done in a very smooth and gentle fashion.

• The light on the dash is very informative, green = hill descent ready, flashing green = hill descent is in control.

• Although you cannot really feel the hill descent at work, you can certainly hear the odd drum from the ABS system on each of the wheels as it works out which wheel to send what amount of braking force to that has the most traction.

We have a Freelander 2 that's 5 years older than our Yeti and while the hill descent is good on the FL2, the Yeti's is much better. It's a very surreal feeling having your feet tucked right back and putting all the faith into someones programming and letting the car do all of the braking for you.

I have to give big credit to Alana because when I say about doing it in reverse in the video, that was the first that she heard about doing it in reverse too. I also hoped that I'd read the manual correctly and it did actually work in reverse or otherwise she was in for a very fast ride coming down the hill! 😂

For me, it was very interesting watching the footage as she come down in reverse. Coming down forwards is one thing as the weight of the engine helps to force the front tyres into the ground. In reverse, you can see that weight almost working against the system and there was a lot more work being done by the braking system to keep the car under full control 😃.

Good summary. My yeti also has hill descent which I have used on rough tracks when very icy. It takes a leap of faith but it's very effective.

Thanks @Moorland 👍. I remember using the hill descent on our Freelander 2 for the very first time and the shear almost panic I felt as I thought it was going to go shooting off down a hill almost out of control 😅. It's very reassuring when both the Freelander 2 and Yeti catches on and brings things under control 😁.