Car with speed limiter but no cruise control

[sebhaque]

This is a new one for me. Travelling on business tomorrow, I arrived home this evening to find a brand new Skoda Fabia unceremoniously dumped on my neighbour's drive. Obviously the first thing I did was go and move it (he didn't mind) but I thought I'd run round the block in it quickly. Much better to set up and get somewhat familiarised to the car when I'm awake rather than trying to adjust things in a blind panic at 5:30am.

What struck me as odd as soon as I got in it, was that there was the traditional VW/Audi Group-style cruise control controls on the indicator stalk, yet there was no cruise control. I had the speed limiter function, but no cruise. Struck me as very odd, I can't imagine why you'd want to split the two apart? On modern drive-by-wire cars it's just electronics anyway. Call me cynical, but since the Skoda I've got is bottom of the range base-spec, I see cruise control deletion as simply being something removed in order to make you pay to get it back.

On the same vein, it's also been many, many years since I've seen a car with voice control buttons (and prompts on the screen), yet no actual voice control feature. I've never disliked Skodas but this new one seems to have had quite a bizarre selection of functions removed. The lack of cruise will be highly annoying for my motorway trip tomorrow, although I am considering simply setting the limiter to 70mph and drive all the way to my destination on WOT. Might take some getting used to

Slightly related, it does amuse me how different hire cars can be in the same group. I travel a lot with work and always get given a hire car, last week I had a diesel Passat saloon with radar-guided cruise control and a couple of other decent gizmos, and this week I'm in a boggo spec petrol Fabia estate with no cruise control but a speed limiter! Last month I had a Peugeot 308 hatchback (surprisingly decent), and before that a Vauxhall Mokka (I actually really liked the Mokka). The company gets charged the same price no matter what car turns up, so I can only assume we're just given whatever's left in the compound when we ask for a vehicle.

As such, I'm away this Sunday for two weeks in a hire car. Please can everybody hiring a car in SW London refuse to take a Mustang so that there are plenty of them left and I get one for a fortnight?

ETA - here's the stalk in question as I assume someone will want to see if I'm just being a plum. I've already done my homework!

Edited by sebhaque on Tuesday 28th June 23:33

[DaveH23]

I had a merc e class hire car the other week and on the face of it, it also only had a speed limiter. After a little playing with it, it also revealed it was cruise as well but labelled in text and symbol to limiter only.

[DaveH23]

Flick the switch on top to turn it on then use the +res to set cruise. The -Set will set the limit.

Once the cruise is set the + and - will work as normal.

[sebhaque]

DaveH23 said:

Flick the switch on top to turn it on then use the + to set cruise. The -Set will set the limit.

Once the cruise is set the + and - will work as normal.

I've already tried Dave, but thanks for the suggestion. Take a look here (post #22 onwards):
http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/352405-cruise...

I've had a couple of similar stalks on VAG cars and there's always been a button or toggle switch to select cruise or limiter - for some reason on this car they've decided to do away with it.

[marshalla]

Cruise control is not available on "S" trim level.

http://www.skoda.co.uk/models/hotspotdetail?Hotspo...

[drdino]

Standard speed limiter is seen positively by euroncap and they can charge for cruise...

[Digitalize]

I imagine it's a base level model that's basically never purchased by the public, but as a hire car they probably got a good deal out of it.

[Dannbodge]

That's not base spec

I had a base spec octavia from Avis, which promptly got returned for a high spec passat (I had a 4 hr drive to do in it and refused)

It has a FM radio, no aux, ipod or DAB
the most uncomfortable seats ever made with no support of any sort on any part
No central armrest
Black plastic bumpers, door handles and wing mirrors.

Also came with the 1.2 3 pot turbo, which is actually a great engine.

I also do a lot of travelling for work and get hire cars. The best has been a 320D, closely followed by a 2.0 tdci Mondeo estate.

Edited by Dannbodge on Wednesday 29th June 08:50

[Alex@POD]

Dannbodge said:

That's not base spec

I had a base spec octavia from Avis, which promptly got returned for a high spec passat (I had a 4 hr drive to do in it and refused)

It has a FM radio, no aux, ipod or DAB
the most uncomfortable seats ever made with no support of any sort on any part
No central armrest
Black plastic bumpers, door handles and wing mirrors.

Also came with the 1.2 3 pot turbo, which is actually a great engine.

I too hate black door handles when I have a long drive ahead.

[Krikkit]

drdino said:

Standard speed limiter is seen positively by euroncap and they can charge for cruise...

This.

Same control hardware etc for the speed limit as cruise, but you can charge a few hundred quid for cruise.

[ooo000ooo]

Wife's aygo and Yaris both have a speed limiter and not cruise control. Waste of money and has never been used. The wee stalk for them is out of the line of sight on the bottom of the steering column and it touches my leg when I turn the steering wheel.

[BuzzBravado]

Sisters Aygo is the same. It would have cost absolutely nothing at all to extend it to cruise as all the parts are in it, but of course why give it away for free.

[Sten.]

My wifes last 2 series msport (company car) had the speed limiter and no cruise. I thought that was pretty bad for a car with a ~£30k list price.

[Dannbodge]

Alex@POD said:

I too hate black door handles when I have a long drive ahead.

The exterior wasn't the issue, it was the lack of driver comfort inside.
The lack of painted trim just showed how much of a base spec the car was.

[BuzzBravado]

Dannbodge said:

Alex@POD said:

I too hate black door handles when I have a long drive ahead.

The exterior wasn't the issue, it was the lack of driver comfort inside.
The lack of painted trim just showed how much of a base spec the car was.

It was 4 hours. Do people really require all the toys in order to drive 4 hours?

"(I had a 4 hr drive to do in it and refused)"

[Shakermaker]

I have Cruise, but no speed limiter in my Skoda.

The "speed limiter" function is a "speed warning" instead just emits a "bong" noise if I decide to go over that limit, so I just don't set it and never get the warning.

[GC8]

Something of a first world problem. What, no DAB? You must be kidding?

[giger]

BMW do this; limiter as standard on a number of models, cruise control is an option! Caught my Dad out when he bought a new 2 series Gran Tourer (especially as the sales guy said it had cruise as standard). As you say, makes no sense.

[Dannbodge]

BuzzBravado said:

It was 4 hours. Do people really require all the toys in order to drive 4 hours?

"(I had a 4 hr drive to do in it and refused)"

It wasn't so much of the toys either.
It was the st seats and no centre armrest, the toys just make it a nicer drive.

Considering we pay for an executive car class, I expect one. Not the cheapest offering that they have available.

If you'd booked what you thought would be a nice comfy car, with a decent trim and this octavia turned up, I'm sure you'd have the hump too.