[comptiger5000]

Hills depend on the car. With an auto, you don't want to attack too hard, as you can't prevent it from unlocking the TC and/or downshifting, so your RPMs will go sky high. With a stick, you can give it some juice to get the engine in an efficient working part of the spectrum (high load) on longer hills. If the hill is short enough, just coast.

The only time to try to maintain, or even gain, speed on a hill with an auto is in a car with a lot of low-end power and a fairly lax tendency to downshift (not your Accent, I used to have a 2000 Elantra 2.0 auto, it was a dog on hills).