Cruise control - do people really use it?
 

Despite having CC and many other gadgets on three of our cars, I have never found the desire to use cruise. I have always preferred direct manual control of the accelerator.

On a 610 mile journey to/from North Wales this week, I decided to use CC to ascertain whether it is as useful as many here seem to suggest. I have to say that despite all the driving being on motorways and outside the rush-hour, I found the feature unhelpful given the constantly varying (by small amounts) speed of vehicle around me. In my view it would need radar controlled speed adaptation to be of practical use on UK roads.

How do others fare with CC?

As an aside, I had taken the Corsa (1.2 SXI) and it delivered 56MPG over the 610 miles. This is close to the official MPG figures and slightly better than the 53MG achieved in the CDT on similar journeys under practically the same driving conditions. This highlights the progress made by petrol engines in the last 10 years.

I always use cruise control, stops me always looking at my speedo , to see if I am speeding.

Had it on my last 75 but not this one, thought I'd miss it, but haven't. It's funny, because when you ask about the most desirable feature members often say cruise. Motorways are usually too busy with ever changing situations to be caught out fiddling with cruise. I used to find it useful through roadworks, but find my sat nav pretty accurate regards to what speed I'm travelling.

I have never used it on any car. The ZT doesn't have it and I wouldn't know hehe. My daily Totota has it and not once has it been engaged. I don't feel in control lol!

Very rarely tbh. Usually I only engage it on a motorway

I use it a fair bit, especially in average speed areas.

Only use in average speed camera zone

I use cruise a great deal.

But....

The cruise on a 75 is quite basic.

More "modern" ones allow small adjustments in speed, particularly to slow by one or two mph, and to change speed in "blocks" of, say, 5mph up or down.

And the really advanced ones have automatic speed adjustment depending upon traffic conditions.

All still need an alert driver assessing everything around them.

Andy.

I use mine in my non Rover a lot. Then again I am on fast roads and motorways a lot on my 55 mile drive to work.

CC + Sport mode?
 

Basic did you say?
Not really, because you can adjust your speed by 1mph increments by tapping the SET+ switch, as I'm told in Owner's handbook p. 113.

BTW I'm actually delighted to have it in my 75 Connie Cowley built. Traveling to Brittany & back, I used & abused it. Very relaxing IMHO.
Indeed nobody can use it the traffic being too intensive.

But I'd one very puzzling question to submit to all of you clever chaps!
Why does the owner's handbook say p. 112 that "Using 'sport' mode on automatic gearbox vehicles is not recommended with cruise control selected"? :shrug:

I did it several times and I found it very handy with my auto box, especially when driving on motorways with lots of uphill.
When you're going uphill on very slopy motorways like in the center of France (Massif Central) if you're driving in 'Eco' mode it's very hard to keep your speed up to the top because the revs are keeping too low. On the contrary in 'Sport' mode the box is automatically downgrading as you know all so that the revs are going up easily allowing the car to keep its pace.
Hence putting at the same time the CC you get the best of the two worlds and I didn't notice that worsen the mpg.
So what? :shrug:

Thanks buds for your kind suggestions. :bowdown: