What is the truth about cruise control?

I hate cruise control! It seems every time I set it that traffic and people driving mess it up and I end up turning it off. I would just rater drive the conventional way. $4.19 a gallon! Wow! What area do you live in?

On relatively level areas with gentle hills, there is little disagreement that cruise control saves gas. A constant speed is preferable. Where the question becomes more cloudy is if the terrain is hilly with frequent changes in the amount of throttle. Cruise tends to apply more correction than the human driver, as it has no ability to anticipate the upcoming climb and lags behind the driver’s reaction, that is, to allow a slight acceleration prior to the need. This mechanical response is wasteful.

thank you Mac.

Adina: I live in West Hollywood, Ca

I just filled up. 3.35 a gal. It works for me, I drive on the highway everyday but there are no hills. Just straight highway. :)

riser I’m jealous of where you live. I love Hollywood….. Are you an actor?

In my experience it saves on gas for highway travel, but not the stop and go inner city driving. And gas here is $3.05 a gallon.

yeah it helps for flat, highway driving

Cruise control on the interstate with low traffic is much more efficient than most drivers can handle manually. If the traffic is low, it might come in handy for a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. If your CRUISING in West Hollywood in a BEEMER you will definitely want to leave it off, they’ll be stopping you every 10 feet :)

with cruise control especially in hilly situations will over compensate and usually has the car downshift to keep up with your set speed or give more throttle then neccessary especially in an automatic car.

$4.19 a gallon? You lucky guys…when I lived in Germany we almost had to pay that much for a litre! Ok not really, but if you calculate it by gallon, prices in Europe range between $5—$8 (a litre costing almost $2 in most countries)

and no, I would never use cruise control. I was once given a company car with an automatic gearshift and got so frustrated that I opted for the boss’s old ‘80s VW Golf instead. But I guess it’s all a question of what one is used to.

It does save fuel as the system can maintain a constant speed better than any human.