After reading Max.P’s COAL post on his Volkswagen Jetta the other day, I noticed that both in the post and some of the comments, a need for cruise control was expressed in situations regarding long commutes. It set an alarm off in my head, because I have never used the cruise control in my current car, despite frequent highway trips of reasonable length.
The only times I ever hit the cruise button were on a couple of trips back and forth to UConn, when I went there my freshman year of college. The only portion of the 2-hour trip I’d use it was for the approximately 12-mile stretch of I-84 between the Mansfield, CT exit and the Massachusetts/Connecticut border. An exceptionally boring stretch of interstate, its unusually frequent amount of steep hills combined with the heaviness of my Highlander’s gas pedal at 70 just made it more comfortable to use the cruise control.
But other than that, cruise control has never appealed to me. Maybe it’s because I’m a little lead-footed on the highway, or maybe it’s because my most frequently traveled highway, MA-Route 3, is too much of a zoo for it. Mostly though, it’s because I like being in total control of my car. I know the simple touch of the brake pedal disengages cruise (or many new cars with adaptive cruise control, a built-in radar can also engage braking), but I still don’t like that feeling of the car maintaining a high speed without my foot on the gas. That’s my feeling on cruise control, but I’ll be interested to know, do other people use cruise control frequently? And would it be a deal-breaking feature when buying a car?
I had an aftermarket cruise control fitted to my ’05 Mazda 3 (manual) and use it quite often. I live in a small rural town, and when I have to drive 25km to the city in light traffic, it’s great. Mine does a great job holding speed uphill and down. The police in Victoria fine you heaps if you’re even 3km/h over the limit, and I can’t afford that.
The comments on the Jetta article struck me as odd, not just in regard to cruise but also horsepower. I’ve owned eight cars (and had two motorcycles as daily drivers) since I got my licence in 1999. None of my cars has had cruise control. Two of them had the same or more power than that Jetta, although one of those probably had a poorer power to weight ratio.
When I worked in car rental and would drive Saab Turbos, M3s etc during my shift, then jump into my 60 bhp Punto and head home on the motorway, I was never frustrated with lack of power and certainly wasn’t sitting in the slow lane with everyone flying past. Maybe it just felt faster than the Jetta would.
Our motorways are two lane, some short sections of three, and trucks have 56mph speed limiters, so slow cars are constantly moving into the outside lane to pass them. The majority of our roads are hilly and curvy. I do use cruise control in my works vehicle, but not often. Even if I head south on a 3 lane road for several hours in my car, I never think “God, it’s awful having to put my foot on this pedal!”
I have to admit though, when I drive in the states, my wife chides me for varying speed too much on the freeway. It’s not something I do at home, but there are so many lanes, the car is an auto, and it doesn’t feel like driving, more like sailing. She makes me use cruise control now. 🙂
Like most professional drivers now, my MPG is monitored by my employer, and we’ve all been sent on a course to improve it. We’re told to use cruise control as much as possible, but I’m sure I get slightly better MPG on normal highways if I don’t. There are so many times I see a tractor/hill/caravan/rental car/group of lycra louts ahead and take my foot right off the gas and let it coast.
I use cruise only when I’m driving more than a half hour out of town using the interstate. I like going a stable speed (70mph) and it allows me to concentrate on the traffic head with the ability to brake or decelerate as needed.
The only problem is that there are plenty of nitwits that will drive 5-10mph below the speed limit (65) and I often get trapped behind them and left-lane hogs that aren’t going much faster. So frustrating.
Cruise has spoiled me. I commute 20 miles each way daily between a small farm town and Waterloo, Iowa. Most of the the ride is on two-lane traffic-light highways with 55 mph limits.
I’ve had a vexing problem in my 2004 Sebring, though, as the CC senors have been fritzed out the last couple of years. My good, young mechanic tells me sensor goblins like that are common in Chryslers of that vintage. I just never seem to have the $400 he says is required to fix the thing. So, I’m left with a CC that seems to have a mind of its own. One day it will work fine; others it won’t. Or, other times, it will work and when I disengage it to slow down, it won’t “resume.” Maybe if I turn off the engine, it will reboot; other times, it won’t.
I keep planning to fix it, but then a strut or something will go out (like now) and I’ll have to get that fixed.
One day, I’ll have it fixed once and for all. I love cruise, and so does my 56-year-old back.
My wife has basically the same model, only the sedan version and a year newer, plus a 4-cyl, compared to the 6 in mine. The cruise on hers works fine, but when I hit the occasional grade, the smaller engine tends to kick down into a lower gear, and the thing revs up to maintain the set speed level. That’s annoying, so I’ll generally disengage the CC until I get to flatter ground.
All 4 of my cars have it but the only time I’ve used it is to see if it worked after I bought them. I made a 600 mile round trip yesterday on flat, straight, lightly trafficked interstates that would have been ideal conditions to use it and it never even dawned on me to use it.
If a car I was looking at did not have it that wouldn’t stop me from buying it. If a car had it and it didn’t work that would upset me more because I think everything in my cars should work but I probably wouldn’t spend any money to fix it until I was ready to sell it.
When I bought a used car out of state earlier this year I had satellite radio installed before making the 600 mile drive home but never touched the cruise control.
I’ve never owned a car with cruise control. Now that we just rent cars, I find it a very handy feature. I have a bit of a lead foot, and on the highways (especially for long trips) using the cruise control is a no-brainer. I like the feeling of driving a car without having to worry about speeding. I set it to within 10 to 15 km/h of the speed limit, call up some good cruising music on my iPod and enjoy the drive. Notice that I say drive instead of ride. As Paul said, without worrying about speeding I can concentrate on driving the car. Plus, the constant speed really helps with gas mileage on long trips.
My 2005 Tundra was only available with a $1000 package that included cruise, power windows and power mirrors, but oddly not a tilt steering wheel.
Anyway, I tried to use the cruise on long trips up the Central Valley (I-5 and CA-99). The problem is that the whole system, engine, transmission and cruise, did not work well together and the slightest uphill grade, and I mean slight, resulted in a full throttle downshift, followed by an immediate upshift. This was not only annoying, but killed gas mileage. This was not a defect in my truck, as this behavior is well known on the Toyota Nation forums.
I can easily modulate the throttle myself to maintain constant speed without the transmission downshifting. Now that I have an Ultragauge installed, I can watch real time mpg and make it even more efficient.
I never use it and I should being a Virginia resident, but it was a PITA on my Regal to set and before I bought it, the words on the stalk were rubbed off. On this Sable I have now it’s easy but I’m just so used to not using it.
Of course I said the same thing about AC, but now that I have it again I am using it ALL THE TIME.
I’ve used it maybe 4 times in 3 years. It’s not suited to the moutain highways east and north of Vancouver, so the only use would be on an I-5 run down to Seattle. Even then the freeway is so busy that I have to have to constantly engage and disengage it,
I use it more if it’s well designed. On my wife’s Corolla and a Trailblazer I occasionally drive, the transmission downshifts way too much on hills in which this is not needed. A lot of times I’ll cancel the cruise control before a hill and make it easily up the hill in top gear. I mention these two cars because they’re both completely different in engine outputs but have similar performing cruise controls. I driven cars that had properly working cruise controls but I can’t remember what they were.
Agreed. Driving in the mountains presents a challenge. If the car lacks enough torque or if it is not geared advantageously, cruise becomes an irritant. When I had the 85 Crown Vic with the 5.0/AOD, it was geared silly tall and would downshift and scream going up every hill. My 94 Club Wagon with the 5.8 and shorter gearing could usually stay in OD without a fuss.
For me, cruise was one of those things you never thought you needed until you had a car with it. My 63 Fleetwood was equipped with cruise (still working in 1979) and ever after, I missed it in every car that lacked it.
Of course, I live in the middle of the flat midwestern U.S., which is cruise control country if ever it existed. It made an upgrade to Sport trim on my Honda Fit a no-brainer. Cruise even came standard on my strippo Kia Sedona.
When I drive without, I find that there are 2 kinds of cars – the kind that feels so natural driving at 85 and keeps surprising you with how fast you are driving, and the kind that wants to go 50. My mother’s Lacrosse has such long gas pedal travel that I kept having to push harder than I was used to in order to keep the speed up. Cruise lets me set and forget the speed and pay attention to the other stuff.
I agree. My last car I almost never used the cruise control; the car was engaging. The Buick, however, is a chore to keep up to speed; I use cruise even on long city boulevards.
We don’t drive long distance nearly as much as we used to when our kids were still at home and our parents were still alive.
If the conditions are right i.e., light traffic, good weather and a long trip, I will use it. I’ve managed to injure my right foot and left ankle and find some stretches of road much easier to drive with the cruise on. Even though I’ve used CC plenty of times, I generally like to “drive” my car. It’s only if my back or my feet/ankles hurt that I really am glad I have it. There are a few times when I would be sorry I didn’t have it, I’m sure.
To all you hop-scotchers out there on the interstates and freeways who don’t use CC and constantly speed up and pass those of us who do, then get in front of us and immediately slow down, forcing us to pass you all over again, then repeating the whole ridiculous cycle over and over… ugh! Please learn to use your dad gummed cruise control!!!
Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!
The flip side of the non-CC users are the guys who execute what is know as the ‘cruise-control pass’. It was addressed years ago by none other than David E. Davis in Car and Driver. These are the guys who have their cruise set at just one mph above the guy in front of them. Rather than hitting the gas to pass in a more expeditious manner, they keep the cruise engaged and pass real s-l-o-w, invariably holding up traffic behind them.
The first car I owned with CC was my ’84 Camaro Z28 with the 5-speed manual. I too thought like the author that I would not use the CC that much, esp. with the manual gearbox, but I was wrong. I did a lot of commuting on the Interstate, and I can tell you that keeping your foot on the gas for a couple hours at a time got mighty tiresome.
Now, I wasn’t a white-knuckle kind of driver like the author apparently was, but I was content to let the car cruise at just over the speed limit so as to not invite a lot of unwanted attention from the local fuzz.
Not only did I become a fan of CC, I couldn’t see how I ever got along w/o it driving on long trips. My Camaro had the CC disengage whenever the clutch or brake pedals were pressed.
There was a side benefit to using CC a lot which I found out after a while: the CC seemed to keep the engine running more or less at constant speed, accounting for hills and the like, which meant that my Camaro got slightly better mileage on cruise than I could manage w/o it.
I use CC quite often.
I forgo it when I want to have fun or stay awake though.
I used it more often when I would go back home from college almost every weekend the first few years. It was (is) a 100 mile trip on multiple CA freeways including the I-5 and 101 and 60.
I just set it at 72mph since traffic is usually light. I’ve set it higher but 72 is a sweet spot if just wanting to relax.
Ive never used resume. Didn’t know it was there lol. I just get to my desired speed and set it everytime I have to cancel. Usually I disengage it if going up a hill or down a steep one.
I rarely take my foot off the gas, feels weird. I just place it without pressing on it (though sometimes I inadvertedly press it a bit more than the CC is and end up speeding up) and since the CC modulates the pedal, I can tell when it’s going to downshift and accelerate to keep up.
Downhill, it downshifts. Not sure if it’s normal for the CC to control the pedal and trans that much lol.
The resume is my favorite feature. I remember in the early 70s, the Chrysler system was the only one with resume, and the rest soon adopted it. It’s great for trips on 2 lane highways that take you through a series of small towns, and eliminates the need for constant resetting.
I use cruise control every day I commute and on road trips. I set the cruise to 62 or 63 mph, stay in the curb lane and cruise to and from work. I generally speed up to 64 or 65 mph on the way home, but not always.
On road trips, I cruise a bit faster, but never more than 2 or 3 mph over the legal limit.
I-275 on the west side of Cincinnati is more lightly- travelled than the rest of the loop, so there is plenty of room for drivers to pass me.
Why do I set the speed at less than max. legal speed? Stress. Simple as that. Works for me.
Maybe because until I bought my Titan I never owned a vehicle with cruise, but as I commented Max’s 2014 Jetta article I don’t use it. I feel I stay more aware of my surroundings as I concentrate to hold a steady speed on my own. And if I was on a long trip and getting tired, I would almost worry not having to keep a steady speed on my own might make it easier to fall asleep. A neighbor told me it should never be used in slippery conditions, he once spun out in his truck because of it trying to maintain speed as he lost traction in the rain. Agree with Paul on the 10 MPH over on the interstate now, but I tried that in the old 55 MPH days and got a ticket from the CHP. He was waiting on the downhill strech on Mt. Shasta to nail people. I got a ticket for going 62 MPH.
depends on where I am but on moving highways I use it all the time. I have an 80 series and I like to keep her and about 71. Also that seems to be the discretionary speed limit where a cop won’t even give me a glimpse in a 65 zone. She can go faster but doesn’t like to. If I had a manual 911, probably wouldn’t use it at all. I guess it depends on the car.
Cruise control’s still a thing? I had seriously forgotten it even exists.
I never touch the thing, and I’ve had several cars equipped with it. Just doesn’t give me the feel of being in control, and besides, where are you going to rest your right foot if it’s engaged? I tend to drive mostly short distances, or in trafficky areas, so the opportunity to use it is rare for me. I always thought it was a cool option to have, though.
I don’t know why, but the slower, less powerful the car/SUV/Truck was, the more I used it. When I’ve had a quick vehicle, say anything that could run under a 16 second 1/4 mile, I pretty much didn’t use it. I think I’ve used it on my 2010 Challenger R/T about 3 or 4 times since I got it, and maybe a half dozen times on my 2008 Charger R/T. I used it on my ’85 Caravan hundreds of times in the 4 years I had it, but maybe a couple of dozen times in my ’88 Blazer, which was much quicker than the ‘Van was.
I like it, but it’s not a deal breaker and I don’t use it daily in the San Diego traffic. Outside the city, though, it helps keep the speed constant. (Paul said it best way upthread) My MT Cherokee didn’t have it but the Subie does; so does #1 son’s Mazda 6, also MT. I don’t think he’s ever used it though as his driving is mostly limited to school and back or to the movies.
Interestin how different placesncan affect its use though. #1 son and I just returned from an East Coast road trip, Boston to Raleigh via Providence, the Finger Lakes, NYC, New Jersey, and Philly, looking at colleges. I used it a lot, even on 2 lane interstates or blue roads. Despite Bostonian’s reputation for bad driving (… stay off the sidewalk!) I found it much easier to use the cruise in the Northeast (between cities of course) than at home in SoCal. Once you’re outside the city proper, drivers there have much better lane discipline, both keeping right if slow, and not passing right if fast. As you head south though it gets worse, and in Raleigh drivers were just like here.
As an old style RWD sedan lover, there’s nothing like a road trip in cruise control. I used it much more when I lived in a part of CT which had less traffic. Over the past 10 years, however, traffic has increased somewhat there, and I’ve moved to NYC where most people do not understand how to maintain a constant speed on highways. I do continue to use it on longer trips, in particular if the terrain is not overly hilly.
I have found it most annoying in underpowered cars, thus in my ’87 Brougham and ’87 Crown Victoria, these were, as JPC put it, cars that wanted to go 50-55 and would want to drop to that on all hills.
My current twosome, the ’77 Electra and ’93 Fleetwood, are interesting. The Electra is already very easy to hold at speed and seems to prefer 65-70 mph by default. It gives a moderate but not drastic improvement in mpg if the cruise is on. That’s a fairly primitive CC system since the ’77 is a carbureted car with no computer.
The ’93 gets phenomenal mileage for its size in cruise, having TBI, computer, TPS, and overdrive. Unfortunately what it also has is traction control which, in addition to pushing the pedal back at you over every bump, also likes to disengage CC any time the bump is anything more serious than a crack in the pavement. The ’93 is also not as easy to hold at speed as the ’77 is, manually, and thus invites more use of CC, but the traction control nannying sometimes creates additional stress. I’m not in love with the ’93…
My wife hardly ever uses cruise. I use it all the time. When I spend more then a half hour controlling the speed by foot my sciatica really acts up. I also find when driving without cruise on the Interstate I slow way down, but driving in urban/country roads I wind up driving way fast.
Yes and Yes. All the time. Wouldn’t buy a DD without it. On my last roadtrip down I-71 to Columbus my ’96 Crown Vic gave me a very respectable 26 mpg with the cruise set at 80. Believe it or not OSHP pretty much ignores anyone on I-71 going under 80 🙂 .
Daily, mostly in the HOV lane. One regret I have with the new-ish car is not waiting for the cruise/camera system Subaru made standard on the ’14 Special Appearance Package.
It’s a big help, especially on the highways. I added it to my early ’80s Toyota; it was a Godsend. One of those creature comforts you don’t realize adds value to your driving mission.
Having been a Luddite for so long, I want blind spot warning and cross traffic detection next…
I don’t use it on my commute to work in the morning, as I have to deal with a toll plaza, an interchange, heavy traffic on I-95, plus spots where state troopers love to lurk around blind corners. However on longer trips, I use it constantly. If I don’t, I find that my speed varies too much–I’ll realize I’m doing over 80, or under 65, sometimes without even really trying. Tend to fall in with the flow of traffic too easily. And, here in VA, anything over 80 is a reckless driving misdemeanor (not ticket) and can carry jail time, even in a 70 zone. So I try to “set and forget” at around 9 over.
My wife is one of those who doesn’t ever use it.
Bit late here sorry Brendan, but I use cruise nearly all the time. It’s commonplace on NZ-new cars, but as it’s uncommon in Japan, the thousands of near-new JDM used-imports that arrive here monthly are mostly cruise-free.
I first experienced controlling my cruise back in 1991 as a 17 year old driving a friend’s parents’ 1987 XF Ford Fairmont Ghia. The factory-standard cruise in those was a vacuum operated system. We didn’t know how to use it, so through trial and error learned the difference between pressing and pressing-and-holding the buttons.
The first car I owned with cruise control was an ’86 Honda Accord 1800cc I bought as a beater in 2001. It was light on torque and struggled on the cruise so I largely ignored it in the 2-3 months I owned it.
In 2005 I got my first new car (a company car), a Mazda6 2.3 with cruise. As a sales rep I was travelling reasonable distances in it, and the cruise was brilliant! Very, very well calibrated and perfectly suited the engine’s characteristics and gearing. It made for very relaxed driving and I used it all the time – even in the 50km/h areas around town. Made for great economy too – at a constant 110km/h on the motorway, the car would regularly return 5.8l/100km, and averaged 7.5l/100km over the 3 years I had it. My sister owns it now, doesn’t use the cruise much, and struggles to get less than 10l/100km.
In 2008 my next company car was a new-shape Mazda6, but a 2.0 litre model – and an excellent example of how different engine characteristics/gearing can make or break cruise control. Compared with the 2.3, the engine didn’t have enough torque to cruise nicely. Where the old 2.3 auto would stay happily in 5th with the occasional smooth change down to 4th, the 2.0 auto was constantly changing abruptly from 5th to 3rd at the slightest hint of an incline. It would hold the lower gears far too long and also had a nasty habit after going up any incline of accelerating to 10-15km/h past the set speed and then cutting out so sharply it was like the brakes were applied. The car was too heavy and under-powered for the cruise to be pleasant.
When my job changed in 2010, I had to buy my own car. It didn’t come with cruise control, but I had a daily 270km round-trip commute, so I bought an aftermarket kit on clearance (down from NZ$400.00 to NZ$39.95, thanks aptly-named Super-Cheap Auto!) and had it installed. It worked a treat and restored my faith after the gutless ’08 Mazda. I liked it so much that when I changed cars in 2011 to another cruise-free car, I had the kit transferred. Weighing 1500ish kg and having just 70kW and 170Nm, you’d think my ol’ Nissan would struggle worse than the ’08 Mazda6, but no, as the Nissan is the RD28 straight-6 diesel, the cruise control suits it very well, it just lopes along in a smooth fuss-free fashion.
Interesting your economy aspect a friend of mine has V8 BMW 7 and reckons he can get 11L/100kms using cruise but cant get it under 13 using his hoof, I\d be using it constantly under those conditions too gas prices being what they are here.