Claire

I have never really used cruise control before as I mostly drive short distances but I will be taking a road trip from NJ to Florida soon. Does using crusie control help with gas mileage?

I'm figuring I'll get between 22-23 mpg on my trip but every little bit extra helps.

Any other tips to help make the road trip as smooth as possible would be appreciated. This is my first one and I'll be by myself.

TIA

heffergm

Keeping your foot in the same place = cruise control. Ergo, mileage is exactly the same over the same distance over the same road.

oasis3582

I have actually observed worse mileage with CC than without. I thought the same thing as you originally.

wrestrepo

My 2 cents are YES, you get better gas milleage simply because you are not playing with the accelerator....I find myself going 85 mph without realizing it....and yes, gas milleage change greatly if you go over 75 (my impressions only).
the best milleage that I have gotten in about 2000 miles of driving is 23 on the hwy....not sure what your experiece is so far..

Patronus

My experience is that cruise control will maintain a set speed without regard to economy. It will downshift uphill, push the throttle as hard as it needs to be pushed to maintain speed.

The most economical way to travel distances is without CC (unless it is dead flat) keeping an eagle eye on the instant economy meter. What you will find is that going uphill losing a few mph will not take near the amount of fuel as keeping a set speed.

Try it, you'll like it.

johnny99

I've gotten up to 27mpg using the cruise control set to 75mph on very flat highways (driving all day with minimal stops). I agree that with any kind of hills, the cruise tends to be somewhat aggressive and you can get better mileage by letting your speed drop on the steeper sections then resuming your speed on the downhills.

You can feel (and hear) when the turbo kicks in. To maximize your gas mileage, you want to avoid using the turbo as much as possible. When the gas pedal starts to push back, you should think about easing up.

Claire

Thanks everyone. I hadn't thought about using the economy meter but I guess that is what it is there for.

I'll probably use the cruise control on flat roadways but cancel it when going up any hills.

mau108

Depends on how you drive, the thing I find with cruise control since the computer is set at a set speed when you go up a hill the car wants to get to the set speed very quickly or keep it there so it may down shift and rev up to keep up or what not, but if you have your feet on the gas you control weather the car will down shift or cruise a slower speed up the hill..

This downshift and reving up will kill fuel so I'm gonna have to agree with oasis, CC does render crappy mileage especially if you're driving through hills.

oasis3582

This seems like a hell of a lot of work to save 1-2 mpg.

mau108

one button conveniently located on the steering wheel, less work then taking your foot off the gas and putting it on the brakes :P

heffergm

Great... like everyone else in this country I get stuck behind, you'll do 80 downhill and them 35 going up the next one.

Do me a favor and just leave the cruise control on. The difference in mileage is going to be minimal if you're traveling at a sane rate of speed.

sl_33

To the best of my knowledge, cruise control is more economical 99% of the time. It maintains a steady speed and only uses just enough gas to maintain that speed. While it would theoretically be the same as keeping a steady foot on flat roads, most people don't seem to have the ability to keep an even pace and therefore are less economical.

Now, if you're going up and down hills and want to manually use the gas, you can probably use less power (i.e. go slower) and make the trip more economical, but you're also going slower!

And I totally agree with heffergm.....I hate it when people go fast and slow on the highway. It's much safer for everyone to just maintain a constant speed. Nothing frustrates me more than passing a car on a hill only to have him whiz by you on the downslope so you can pass him again on the next hill. Throw some extra traffic and cell phones into the mix and you've just created a great recipe for an accident. Not to mention the tendency to let the car speed up a bit too much on the downslope and put yourself in a position to get a speeding ticket from the cops who love to wait for people to come down a hill too quickly.

johnny99

I shut the cruise control off if there are any other cars around me. Following the speed/flow of traffic is very difficult with the cruise control on.

nj2pa2nc

I drive from NC to NJ and back every few weeks. I use cc on RT. 40 (not too much traffic) and stop using it on 95, jersey turnpike, 195, gsp.

Claire

lol...

Mangus

Amen to that.

Further, there's nothing more frustrating to me than when I'm on long drives late at night, and there's only one other car on the highway with me, and it's stuck to my fender or quarter panel at exactly the times I need to change lanes to pass. I increment/decrement cruise speed to try to get them to go away, and they follow suit. Why? Because they don't use cruise control. 9/10 times they're on the phone, and subconsciously pacing me.

I find that people naturally tend to stick to the cars around them in these situations.

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to tape a sign stating "Use Your Cruise Control" to my windows on long trips like this. Heck, one time I nearly had my wife open up the laptop and type up the message in word, put it in large font, and hold it up to the window.

Most cars have cruise control these days. Use it on those long trips where minimal traffic is present!

</rant> Sorry. I feel better now, though. I guess that saves me the $120 therapy session.

brizey

I pretty much never use cruise control. I forget that it exists. It is pretty rare that I am not driving about 10 mph faster than everyone else, so I don't have much trouble with people pacing me. And while it would be nice to say otherwise, I could care less about fuel economy. I figure my free time is worth at least $2 per minute, so the variance in fuel economy is irrelevant compared to getting where I am going a little faster.

buxtons

There was a Top Gear show once that had the host drive a diesel A8 from point A to B to A on one tank of gas. He found in the course of driving that he received better mileage with the CC off as well as all accessories.

sl_33

Well yeah, I would imagine turning off the stereo and A/C and whatever else is going to help save on gas.

I don't think CC is useful if you're going to drive 10mph faster than everyone else or if you're in heavy traffic. But in light traffic on a highway with few hills, I don't understand why you wouldn't use it.

Also, in my experience in Texas, people pace on the highway not so much because they are on cell phones or not paying attention but because if you're going 20mph over the limit and have a caravan of 5 cars train doing so...a cop can only get one of you or hopefully think that you're all keeping pace and ignore everyone. This is no excuse to tailgate or have your lights shining into the guy in front at night though...that is annoying.