Thanks for your detailed reply Andy. Would cruise control have a negative affect on mpg?
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For most people it will have a positive effect on mpg, however technically a disciplined driver should be able to get better mpg than cruise. But most drivers are simply not as good as they think or really know
how to get good mpg.
Ill try to answer without writting a novel:
In short, cruise is REACTIVE.
A driver can be PREDICTIVE and so should have an advantage. (but many drivers are not very predictive)
For most people cruise would have a positive effect, - particularly on the motorway as there are no junctions, tight bends or sigificant hills. (motorways have a maximum incline to be classified as a motorway)
The main thing is people will tend to speed up through boredom whereas cruise wont so much of the gain is simply that cruise is disciplined. Its also a relaxing drive.
I would say to anyone thinking of cruise to go for it, one of the things you dont know you needed until you get it.
However, if you get a good driver, and you are say on an A road with gentle bends and hills a driver that knows what they are doing can get better mpg than cruise.
Hills also, its better to use downhill sections and allow speed to increase and use this speed for the uphill section without applying more throttle. Cruise would cut off on the downhill section, which is great, but then it also does not take advantage of the downhill section so when the uphill section arrives it pumps in much more throttle to maintain the speed conteracting to gain on the downhill section.
ANTICIPATION is everything to get great mpg. But then anticipation should be used all the time by everybody. - Try doing your next drive without using the brakes at all. This will soon teach you alot about
how to get along using less fuel and surprise yourself as you find yourself keeping up with other cars that are driving faster than yourself but not anticipating junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights!
