Cruise Control
Discussion
Does anyone else find themselves unwilling to use this?
People say it's great for long motorway drives so you can relax your feet. However when I am driving on a motorway I am continually adjusting my speed slightly for a smoother drive. A car gaining on me from behind? Ease up a wee bit so I'll be in the right place to overtake that lorry when it's gone past. See the car ahead on my left will want to overtake shortly? Speed up a little so it can pull out behind me without slowing down.
The idea of staying at fixed speed where the technology makes you less willing to make small adjustments seems to me to lead to a worse standard of driving. And TBH I've never found placing my right foot on a peddle to be that onerous, it's not like the gas peddle is as heavy as the clutch. I don't limp out of the car after 200 miles on the motorway on account of my right foot having not been relaxed enough.
People say it's great for long motorway drives so you can relax your feet. However when I am driving on a motorway I am continually adjusting my speed slightly for a smoother drive. A car gaining on me from behind? Ease up a wee bit so I'll be in the right place to overtake that lorry when it's gone past. See the car ahead on my left will want to overtake shortly? Speed up a little so it can pull out behind me without slowing down.
The idea of staying at fixed speed where the technology makes you less willing to make small adjustments seems to me to lead to a worse standard of driving. And TBH I've never found placing my right foot on a peddle to be that onerous, it's not like the gas peddle is as heavy as the clutch. I don't limp out of the car after 200 miles on the motorway on account of my right foot having not been relaxed enough.
I hardly ever use cruise as I find it a little disconcerting, and feel as though I'm not in full control of the car.
However, I would like to try a car with one of the more modern radar controlled systems that automatically adjust your speed & distance if it detects a slower vehicle in front.
However, I would like to try a car with one of the more modern radar controlled systems that automatically adjust your speed & distance if it detects a slower vehicle in front.
Really, really dislike it.
Having nothing for my feet to do when driving feels so bloody wrong it's untrue!
ETA; I really, really dislike the drivers who overtake with their cruise control on too, barely creeping past. Not unlike the woman in a Merc the other day. She crept past someone in the outside lane, then went back into the middle lane, misjudged the slower speed of the car in front and had to brake - disengaging the cruise control anyway!
Having nothing for my feet to do when driving feels so bloody wrong it's untrue!
ETA; I really, really dislike the drivers who overtake with their cruise control on too, barely creeping past. Not unlike the woman in a Merc the other day. She crept past someone in the outside lane, then went back into the middle lane, misjudged the slower speed of the car in front and had to brake - disengaging the cruise control anyway!
Edited by Baz Tench on Saturday 24th March 11:33
I use it all the time. I don't have that much experience but our Golf and Mini both have buttons that allow you to move the speed up or down by about 1 mph with a single press which makes it easy to carry out the sort of minor adjustments that are regularly necessary.
Plus throughout those interminable (cash generating) average speed traps all over the motorways, cruise control is almost becoming essential IMO.
Plus throughout those interminable (cash generating) average speed traps all over the motorways, cruise control is almost becoming essential IMO.
All the cruise control implementations I have used allow you to make speed adjustments on their controls. You can also accelerate and then the system will return to your set speed when you come back off the gas. If anything using the speed control on the cc makes you anticipate further ahead to make small corrections. If you want to slow a little faster but not brake then press the control to switch cc off and you have engine braking. Like most things you just have to learn how to get the best out of it.
If anything I find myself holding the full weight of my foot off the accelerator pedal at motorway speeds. If I let my foot rest on it I would end up doing well over 100mph I expect.
If anything I find myself holding the full weight of my foot off the accelerator pedal at motorway speeds. If I let my foot rest on it I would end up doing well over 100mph I expect.
Edited by Toltec on Saturday 24th March 11:34
I wasn't a fan of the idea until I had it on a couple of cars - now I think it's great.
As people have said minor adjustments are easy when required and if you do have to brake just hit resume once you're free again and off you go.
It's the safety of not creeping to silly speeds that I like about it rather than it aiding relaxation.
As people have said minor adjustments are easy when required and if you do have to brake just hit resume once you're free again and off you go.
It's the safety of not creeping to silly speeds that I like about it rather than it aiding relaxation.
Puddenchucker said:
However, I would like to try a car with one of the more modern radar controlled systems that automatically adjust your speed & distance if it detects a slower vehicle in front.
Those things are the spawn of the devil. They use the brakes to slow down to manage the speed and distance, which results in a big line of cars all braking to slow down, when really the most speed-correction one should do on a motorway is lifting your foot off the accelerator unless coming up to stationary traffic (yesterday I was almost rear ended by a van because they didn't treat my brake lights as 'seriously I am stopping now there is stationary traffic in this lane' (I slammed my hand on the dash to turn the hazards on as well, missed, turned the CD off, "f
k", slammed the hazards on with my second attempt 
... that was a clencher) they had to dive onto the hard shoulder. I can understand why they didn't - most brake lights on the motorway are people making silly speed corrections from not planning in advance, and you can usually ignore them...)I always hated the idea but then lived in the USA for a bit and got used to it. I use it all the time now I am back here. The trick, I find, is to use cancel then re-set or resume as necessary for big speed adjustments. Chasing the speed up and down with the + and - function only really works when things are pretty steady.
I use it everytime I'm on the motorway and I think it's great.
I always set mine to a speed camera "safe" speed so that I don't have to suddenly brake as soon as a scamera van comes into view and I can drive around the people to who immediately brake down to 40mph long after the scamera vans already pinged them.
It is becoming very frustrating to use though. Most days when I catch up with someone in lane 1, they'll immediately speed up when I'm overtaking. I can clearly tell they speed up because I'm doing a constant speed yet somehow they seem to start getting further infront.
Or I'll end up passing someone without issue only for them to overtake me 10 minutes later. I'll then catch them up again only for them to overtake me again. This then repeats for 4-5 miles before I increase my speed and get well away from them.
Or I'll get someone who'll catch me up, but then suddenly slows down and stays on my blind spot for a couple of miles.
Cruise control really shows you the amount of cocks who speed up when overtaken and those who can't maintain a constant speed.
I always set mine to a speed camera "safe" speed so that I don't have to suddenly brake as soon as a scamera van comes into view and I can drive around the people to who immediately brake down to 40mph long after the scamera vans already pinged them.
It is becoming very frustrating to use though. Most days when I catch up with someone in lane 1, they'll immediately speed up when I'm overtaking. I can clearly tell they speed up because I'm doing a constant speed yet somehow they seem to start getting further infront.
Or I'll end up passing someone without issue only for them to overtake me 10 minutes later. I'll then catch them up again only for them to overtake me again. This then repeats for 4-5 miles before I increase my speed and get well away from them.
Or I'll get someone who'll catch me up, but then suddenly slows down and stays on my blind spot for a couple of miles.
Cruise control really shows you the amount of cocks who speed up when overtaken and those who can't maintain a constant speed.
I use mine all the time, having the stalk right at you fingertips, (where the indicator stalk usually is in any other car, Merc's have the indicator stalk much lower down) its so convenient just to flick a few more mph in for overtaking etc, it's one of the better cruise control systems I've used.
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