Cruise Control

Mr. Manager

Right, so after a long wait I finally picked up a new car. 2004 Audi A4 1.9 TDi.

It has cruise control which i was able to use the first day I bought it when I drove to Leitrim.

Now, my question is; will using the Cruise control consume more diesel or use any more battery power than normal??

thehomeofDob

Cruise control is so handy. People say it's the lazy mans option, but I find I can concentrate on observations much more when I'm not worried about keeping speed correct. Couldn't tell you about fuel consumption as I've been using it at every oportunity so don't know what it's like without it.

opinion guy

If it stops you breaking the speed limit then it will pay for itself

dergside

I retro-fitted it to a 330Ci I had a couple of years ago and used it frequently. Going by the OBC, the economy improved by about 4-5% in the following few thousand miles.

bmw535d

Ive no figures too prove it but id say yes it defiantly improves fuel efficiency.
id say its something to do with the human tendency to accelerate up hill and coast down hill to try to stick to the one speed. however we tend to over compensate while cruise control just uses the exact amount of throttle to stick to 60 etc, you should be seeing 60+mpg in the right conditions.

Mr. Manager

opinion guy wrote: »

If it stops you breaking the speed limit then it will pay for itself

I do all my driving on the motorway. Stick it to 110Kmh and just cruise along to work

opinion guy

Cereal Rapist wrote: »

I do all my driving on the motorway. Stick it to 110Kmh and just cruise along to work

Something wrong with 120kph ?

Eoin

opinion guy wrote: »

Something wrong with 120kph ?

Depending on the car, fuel efficiency can drop considerably over 110kmh or so.

opinion guy

eoin wrote: »

Depending on the car, fuel efficiency can drop considerably over 110kmh or so.

Fair enough. Just so long as one stays in the slow lane at that speed

Eoin

You mean the driving lane!

rebel.ranter

Stick it at 140kmph & get there a little earlier!
Cruise control will show you how rubbish other drivers are at maintaining a constant speed.

MetzgerMeister

I remember an episode of Top Gear where Jeremy drove a V8 diesel Audi A6 or A8 and he got better mpg when he had the cruise control off.

Eoin

You can't really take any of the tests on that show at face value.

Voodoomelon

Cruise control is the business. One thing I found interesting through its use is your perception of whats uphill and whats downhill.

If I have cc set to say 120km/h, and I watch the MPG dial I often see it going up, despite the road ahead looking like its going up a hill. Same can apply when you think the road is flat or going down hill and the needle for the MPG drops.

I guess thats how those magic/magnetic hills work, its all about your perceptions of your surroundings; the road in relation to everything else.

mickdw

Driving efficiently withot cruise will be more fuel efficient. Now on a motorway there should be nothing in it really but take a slightly poorer road where there might be more ups & downs, bends etc. A driver shoould be more efficient due to having the ability to read the road ahead so for example if I see a short climb ahead, I can assess it & figure out that maybe I can allow the car to slow marginally going up the hill knowing I will get the speed up again for free on the downward slope. The cruise control on the other hand will feed in more fuel to maintain my speed, then apply brakes on the downward slope to maintain th speed. This is a waste of energy. This is replicated in many situations when driving. The fact that the river can read the road ahead gives him/her the advantage. If the driver is not being sensible, well the computer may win in that situation.

GTE

Modern cruise control seems to be programmed with MPG in mind.

My dads old E Class (1999 Petrol) effectively boy raced its way up to speed.
His 2004 diesel E Class gently and leisurely floats up to speed.

opinion guy wrote: »

Something wrong with 120kph ?

eoin wrote: »

Depending on the car, fuel efficiency can drop considerably over 110kmh or so.

opinion guy wrote: »

Fair enough. Just so long as one stays in the slow lane at that speed

eoin wrote: »

You mean the driving lane!

CHAPOWZAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

R.O.R

mickdw wrote: »

Driving efficiently withot cruise will be more fuel efficient. Now on a motorway there should be nothing in it really but take a slightly poorer road where there might be more ups & downs, bends etc. A driver shoould be more efficient due to having the ability to read the road ahead so for example if I see a short climb ahead, I can assess it & figure out that maybe I can allow the car to slow marginally going up the hill knowing I will get the speed up again for free on the downward slope. The cruise control on the other hand will feed in more fuel to maintain my speed, then apply brakes on the downward slope to maintain th speed. This is a waste of energy. This is replicated in many situations when driving. The fact that the river can read the road ahead gives him/her the advantage. If the driver is not being sensible, well the computer may win in that situation.

Pretty sure Cruise Control doesn't apply the brakes, it just uses engine braking to slow - which in modern cars is free mileage as no fuel is used on overrun.

I've had a couple of cars come out of cruise control automatically when doing fairly slow speeds (50km/h ish) and going down a relatively steep hill (Julianstown mainly). The engine couldn't brake sufficently to keep the speed at what was set, so it just gave up.

I rarely use the cruise control on my car as I drive mainly in rush hour traffic and it's very hard to maintain a set speed. If I'm driving outside of rush hour on Motorways it's very handy so you can give your right foot a break. I managed the whole of the M8 (before the new bit) with only having to disengage the Cruise once before getting to the toll. That's when it comes in to its own.

BlackWizard

My cruise control uses engine braking too. Usually that's not enough and I'll pick up speed.

It's quite aggressive at accelerating but that could just be the torque being used in the diesel engine. I've an automatic car so it actually changes gears when it needs to too

On a long run with CC on, it always does better fuel consumption than leaving it off.

opinion guy

I don't have CC but I want it more as a means of obeying the speed limit as anything else

Voodoomelon

I love "putting the finger down" on the motorway. Pressing the + on the steering wheel for 2-3 seconds drops a gear and she takes off!

beamgirl

I have been told you cannot get cruise control available on the Audi A6? If not are there any similar makes/models with it?

woody33

I'd say it's more economical than normal driving, but not as good as determined hypermiling. "Pulse and glide" seems to be the way to get best mpg...apply throttle and then glide on the overrun. Probably not recommended on a busy road.

opinion guy

beamgirl wrote: »

I have been told you cannot get cruise control available on the Audi A6? If not are there any similar makes/models with it?

Who told you that ? You can get cruise control on an A3, A4, A5. I would be flabbergasted if you couldn't get it on an A6.

In fact I just checked the prodcut guide on the website and it says cruise control is standard on an A6
Go to this link and click on product guide on the left hand side:
http://www.audi.ie/ie/brand/en/models/a6/a6_saloon.html

Really curious who told you it asn't available

Edit: Also info on uk website:
http://www.audi.co.uk/new-cars/a6/a6-saloon/driver-aids.html