Does Cruise Ctrl improve MPG ?

sooper coop

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Havnt had the chance to do a back to back but for example driving from London to Bath...

with it set at 80mph


whaddya reckon

SP.
 

sebastianforbes

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hi there

it will definitely improve your fuel economy but you won't see the effect in your pocket for a few thousand miles.

cheers

sebastian.
 
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jon_harley

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Setting it at 70 would definitely improve your MPG, I reckon
 

jberks

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I've not really found cruise to be much of an MPG saver except to keep the speed down to more sensible levels. If I'm driving on the throttle I tend to creep up towards 100 , whereas I will set the cruise to 80-85 and stay there, hence the MPG is better with cruise.
On the other side, most drivers tend to slow down going up hills. The cruise will try to maintain the speed up hill and down dale so you will use a little more fuel than normal going up the hills, then the cruise will hold back going down the other side (when all those cars you passed on the way up, come speeding past you on the way down), so you won't be taking as much advantage of the downhill runs either.

In any case you will need a quiet motorway to use it for more than 2 mins at a time.
 

mlc

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I have had cruise for the last 17 years and can confirm that it saves fuel. I once did a back to back with a work collegue where we drove two identical cars from Manchester to Harrogate and back more or less following each other, I used cruise she didnt, I achieved about 5% better mpg.

The main reasons for saving fuel are constant speed and reducing your speed, as some one has already said it all to easy to let your speed slip upwards and running at 90 uses more fuel than 80. The final advantage is that you tend to give your passengers a smoother ride, although another is that it is a good way of ensuring you dont trouble the speed cameras through motorway roadworks :)

All in all it is high on my must have list for each new car.

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zulfi

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I saw a top gear program once where they said using cruise control used more fuel (the audi journey from london to scotland and back). I presume it does if you compare it with driving at the same speed without the cruise on.
 

Rory

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The only reason using Cruise seems more economical is because it removes the (weak willed) human factor.
Driving with Cruise uses MORE fuel, because the car tries to maintain a constant speed up hills and can't anticipate traffic build ups etc.

The most economical way to drive is to 'ease' the car up hills, allowing the speed to decay, then build up speed on the downhill sections. Plus, of course, to use as much anticipation as possible - heavy braking is a disaster, it just wastes all the fuel you've used to get up to that speed.

Of course, there's a limit to what you can do on the road, without hacking off other drivers.
 

300CE24Coupe

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As long as you do not enter the motorway at 30mph and then activate the memorised cruise control speed, otherwise the car (well mine does anyway), will accelerate to the memorised speed as quickly as it possibly can, while fun, costly on fuel.

I found that I can get more economical driving without cruise control for the following reasons:

1. I anticipate hills and accept the fact that other drivers in front of me may slow down as they are not using cruise control.
2. I back off on the accelerator while going down a hill.
3. I accelerate to my required speed gradually unless in a hurry.
 

SLinKyjoe

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zulfi said:
I saw a top gear program once where they said using cruise control used more fuel (the audi journey from london to scotland and back). I presume it does if you compare it with driving at the same speed without the cruise on.


this was beacause he was tryin to keep the car with as low a rev as possible. beneath 1200 for the best part of the journey but the curise kept the car at a constant road speed, for economy he needed to keep the car at a constant engine speed and allow the speed to tail off a bit on inclines.

mind you he got 800miles out of a 4.2 using 1 tank of fuel...not too bad.
 
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