I finally found a use for cruise control.

Garry Edwards

Garry Edwards

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Garry Edwards
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Yesterday, had my first puncture for a very long time, although I'm sure that I'll get another before I can replace the tyre:)
93 miles of mainly A road and M roads to run,

I changed the wheel, and fitted the horrible "Spacesaver". It was clearly marked as 80 km or 50 mph maximum, and even got a bit warm at a steady 50 - but how to maintain a maximum of 50 when everyone else is driving at the national speed limit (at least)? Speed tends to creep up.

That was when I realised that cruise control actually has a useful purpose, it didn't allow me to creep over 50.

Long, slow and very boring run, but at least the fuel consumption was excellent:)
 
I have active cruise control which is even better, slows you down as you approach the rear of traffic, keeping you the exact distance from the car in front, even if they brake. On my new car it reads the speed limit signs and if you're in cruise control automatically slows the car so its at the new limit as you pass the sign, which I find very useful.
 
Humphrey said:
I have active cruise control which is even better, slows you down as you approach the rear of traffic, keeping you the exact distance from the car in front, even if they brake. On my new car it reads the speed limit signs and if you're in cruise control automatically slows the car so its at the new limit as you pass the sign, which I find very useful.
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Good for you, that sounds great :). Unfortunately my car isn't that clever, and cruise control is normally only useful on my car if everyone else maintains a constant speed, which they never do :(
 
My ten year old Hyundai has both a limiter and cruise control.

I used cruise control most of the time when it was new and I was still doing a lot of motorway travel. Now I travel a lot less and mostly in 20, 30 and 40 limits, so find the limiter much more useful.
 
ACC works a charm, IMO a great improvement over regular CC.
For the last 3 decades though, I've found that any and all forms of speed control eventually succumbed to the PFO system - Passenger Freaking Out ;D
 
I used to find it a godsend when motorway driving, with all the speed restrictions for roadworks on the M1. It's still occasionally useful here in NI but less so. (Adaptive CC in my Mazda, along with Lane Assist to keep me on the straight and narrow!)
 
ACC is fine until the guy in front wants to turn onto a slip road, then though the road in front of you is clear the ACC slams the brakes on anyway.
 
I never use CC but almost always use the limiter (aka "points preventer"!)
 
I found it incredibly useful last week towing the caravan from Dorset back to north wales on a weekday . Took all the stress out of a 7 hour journey
 
Now try driving in London - 20 mph adaptive cruise with creep turned off. Unless you are first at the lights you only need to steer. Kev could also do that but I like to do something to keep me awake.
 
Love cruise, I wouldn't be without it nowadays. Once set, I will use it to accelerate on the steering wheel if I need to. It's not adaptive though, a 10 year old Megane but it's very user friendly. It will disengage if I touch the brakes or clutch. If I change gear with our Leon, the cruise stays set but not with the Megane. The Megane has a limiter too, which I have used in the past, it won't allow me to go over a set speed, unless I kick it down if a need to get out of a situation.

I prefer the cruise though and it will also light the dashboard up red if I go 4mph over the set speed.

Living where we do, I use cruise a lot but obviously in some situations, it can be a no no.

MPG can be nuts when using cruise too, I was getting 64 mpg on a recent trip to Glencoe when set at 58 mph in the 60s.
 
I find cruise control can be quite handy for the now horrible to drive A9 due to all the average speed cameras. Adaptive would be better though because there's still plenty of people who won't sit at a constant speed.

Even more handy is the Average Speed option on my trip computer, which I reset after each camera so that if caravans are toddling along at around 40mph I know how much scope I've got for overtaking before hitting the average speed restriction.
 
I've seen fixed camera vans in average speed areas so beware of that tactic.
 
i have to say i wouldn't function without cruise control its on all the time in my snail
 
Nod said:
I've seen fixed camera vans in average speed areas so beware of that tactic.
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I've never seen that myself, but certainly worth looking out for. I use Waze which has been pretty accurate to date with speed traps, not that I rely on it 100% though.

As annoying as the A9 average speed cameras are, I do get why they are there. I don't actually find the road itself all that bad, but it's more the lack of safe overtaking sections on the single carriageway sections. There's either not enough road before there's a blind hill or a corner, or there's a junction etc.
 
i dont mind the cruise control in the cars if im on the motorway, ive tried it on windy A and B roads up in Scotland once and my bird reaconed it makes her feel car sick so i dont bother, ive got it on one of my bikes and the only time ive used it is going through a long section of average speed cameras but again it was just the once
 
I love it on my Puma, dynamic CC on an automatic. I have managed to drive from an A road onto the M25, half way around it and onto another A road again without having to brake of accelrate myself.

Just need to keep your hands on the steering wheel for lane keeping (and to change lanes obviously) to work and have a car in front of you on junctions
 
The only time I ever use CC is on motorways and larger dual carriageways - I find it helps me stay within the speed limit. :police:

As I've always driven big engined gas guzzlers & 4x4s, it helps keep the fuel cost a little lower too. :cool:
 
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Sky said:
The only time I ever use CC is on motorways and larger dual carriageways - I find it helps me stay within the speed limit. :police:

As I've always driven big engined gas guzzlers & 4x4s, it helps keep the fuel cost a little lower too. :cool:
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My OH still nearly got caught out by a speed limit change on the motorway. Dynamic cc does not change your speed until you go past the new speed limit sign.
She went under a gantry that was showing 50, coming down from 70 and the gantry had cameras on it as well.
We were never sure if the cameras went off, but we didn’t every get a ticket through
 
I find it's especially useful when I visit my lad in Bristol, the M4/M5 roadworks are a PITA, and they're often down to 40mph at times.
 
leaky5 said:
My OH still nearly got caught out by a speed limit change on the motorway. Dynamic cc does not change your speed until you go past the new speed limit sign.
She went under a gantry that was showing 50, coming down from 70 and the gantry had cameras on it as well.
We were never sure if the cameras went off, but we didn’t every get a ticket through
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The limit is checked at the next gantry, not the one which first shows the reduced limit.
 
Pound Coin said:
The limit is checked at the next gantry, not the one which first shows the reduced limit.
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If I remember correctly, the ones on the M25 also have a "wait time" of 2 minutes before the cameras come into force. Not sure if that is still the case (moved away 5 years ago) nor whether that's a national thing or not....
 
I do use cc quite a bit, but it shows up how much some yo-yo on the throttle on a wide, clear road.

CC seems to be economical on the Skoda and my wife's Citroen, but years back we had a small Peugeot hire car, and found it used much more fuel when on cruise than driven manually. Now I'm always quite wary to use it on a new car for this reason.
 
I don't have adaptive cruise control and it's the main feature I want if I buy a new car. I do use CC extensively on long drives since it means I don't need to think about my speed and I find it a lot more comfortable not having to hold my foot in the same place all the time.

I do find very few people use CC though and it can make it pointless at times especially on single carriageway where the speeds are varying too much. I'm surprised just how much the speed varies and at times I've been on a motorway and seen a car shooting past me, then I overtake it, then it goes shooting past etc, but I've been going exactly the same speed the whole time.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
I don't have adaptive cruise control and it's the main feature I want if I buy a new car. I do use CC extensively on long drives since it means I don't need to think about my speed and I find it a lot more comfortable not having to hold my foot in the same place all the time.

I do find very few people use CC though and it can make it pointless at times especially on single carriageway where the speeds are varying too much. I'm surprised just how much the speed varies and at times I've been on a motorway and seen a car shooting past me, then I overtake it, then it goes shooting past etc, but I've been going exactly the same speed the whole time.
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Sometimes on a long drive I can do that with another car going roughly at the same pace as me. We both take turns overtaking each other, not frantically, just breezing past each other. I find it can help relieve the boredom of the long drive.
 
gman said:
Sometimes on a long drive I can do that with another car going roughly at the same pace as me. We both take turns overtaking each other, not frantically, just breezing past each other. I find it can help relieve the boredom of the long drive.
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This happens sometimes on the long drive through France. My thoughts tend to be somewhat uncharitable towards the driver that just overtook and then slowed in front of me, sometimes causing me to have to brake and be boxed in.
 
ancient_mariner said:
This happens sometimes on the long drive through France. My thoughts tend to be somewhat uncharitable towards the driver that just overtook and then slowed in front of me, sometimes causing me to have to brake and be boxed in.
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That"s poor form of them and sounds different to what I'm referring to.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I do use cc quite a bit, but it shows up how much some yo-yo on the throttle on a wide, clear road.

CC seems to be economical on the Skoda and my wife's Citroen, but years back we had a small Peugeot hire car, and found it used much more fuel when on cruise than driven manually. Now I'm always quite wary to use it on a new car for this reason.
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I think you are right on the more fuel thing in some situations.
I find if you are on a B road for instance and its a 60 and you come to a small hill the CC has to surge to get up it
what i often do is knock it on pause and just drift up the hill losing a bit of speed but once over just come gently back up to speed.
 
Mr Bump said:
I think you are right on the more fuel thing in some situations.
I find if you are on a B road for instance and its a 60 and you come to a small hill the CC has to surge to get up it
what i often do is knock it on pause and just drift up the hill losing a bit of speed but once over just come gently back up to speed.
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Ahhhhh...so it's people like you who go down into the Clyde Tunnel at 40mph and then go up and out at 15mph.... whilst I'm behind almost stalling because they are being a tightwad! lol
 
gman said:
Ahhhhh...so it's people like you who go down into the Clyde Tunnel at 40mph and then go up and out at 15mph.... whilst I'm behind almost stalling because they are being a tightwad! lol
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Around here, I've always assumed that it was because the cars weren't powerful enough to hold speed up the hill.

Mr Bump said:
I find if you are on a B road for instance and its a 60 and you come to a small hill the CC has to surge to get up it
what i often do is knock it on pause and just drift up the hill losing a bit of speed but once over just come gently back up to speed.
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I should probably clarify the circumstances of my comment: this was on the autoroute between Bordeaux and Biarritz - we were staying about an hour south of Bordeaux, driving up and down. Peugeot diesels seemed at that time to have been set up so that after reaching cruising speed one could back off the throttle and the car would hold speed - I found this especially true with the 307SW I was using back in the UK, where I could squeeze 70+mpg out of it at 70mph, simply astonishing. This wasn't happening with the little pug in CC, so it used more fuel. Our more recent cars since the 307 was replaced (mini countryman cooper D, mini cooper SD, petrol citroen and diesel Skoda Karoq) don't have this behaviour, and what you set on the throttle is what you get in terms of speed.
 
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gman said:
Ahhhhh...so it's people like you who go down into the Clyde Tunnel at 40mph and then go up and out at 15mph.... whilst I'm behind almost stalling because they are being a tightwad! lol
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clyde tunnel no ta to far from yorkshire that
 
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