Cruise Control Question

J

JWR

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I often drive on open mountainous interstate quality highways. I was shocked to find that the cruise control on both my new F-150 and this MKZ will shift down to a lower gear to slow the vehicle on steeper downhills (!) I prefer the "old" style cruise control that lets the vehicle coast faster than the cruise setting. I do not like the idea of losing gas mileage by artificially downshifting. This forces me currently to keep turning cruise control off and on. Sure, the mileage impact is negligible but I just detest the idea of downshifting when in cruise control.

Anyone out there know if this is a setting or if there is a way to change the behavior of the cruise control? The owner's manual offers no clue.
Note the F-150 is NOT adaptive and the MKZ does have radar and is adaptive.
 
An update: Just talked to the dealer and they say that this intrusive, over-reaching feature is "the way it is." There are no settings that offer an ability to revert to old-style cruise control which simply coasts or allows higher than the set speed going downhill. Not only does this hurt gas mileage (slightly) it also increases wear (slightly.) One of those cases where you have to wonder what the design discussion was like among engineers before doing this.
 
JWR said:
I often drive on open mountainous interstate quality highways. I was shocked to find that the cruise control on both my new F-150 and this MKZ will shift down to a lower gear to slow the vehicle on steeper downhills (!) I prefer the "old" style cruise control that lets the vehicle coast faster than the cruise setting. I do not like the idea of losing gas mileage by artificially downshifting. This forces me currently to keep turning cruise control off and on. Sure, the mileage impact is negligible but I just detest the idea of downshifting when in cruise control.

Anyone out there know if this is a setting or if there is a way to change the behavior of the cruise control? The owner's manual offers no clue.
Note the F-150 is NOT adaptive and the MKZ does have radar and is adaptive.
Click to expand...

Same issue I experienced when driving my wife's 2014 MKZH. The only way around this was to turn C/C off when going down hill. Then reset it after the hill. A real PIA.
 
Use the cancel and resume button... Fuel waste on a hill? What ware you driving down Mount McKinley daily?
 
mark95man said:
Same issue I experienced when driving my wife's 2014 MKZH. The only way around this was to turn C/C off when going down hill. Then reset it after the hill. A real PIA.
Click to expand...

Agree. The least nuisance way around it seems to be to hit "cancel" which does not erase the speed setting and then "resume" after the downhill interval. That's still, as you say a PIA, but not quite as bad as having to set the speed all over again.
 
JWR said:
Agree. The least nuisance way around it seems to be to hit "cancel" which does not erase the speed setting and then "resume" after the downhill interval. That's still, as you say a PIA, but not quite as bad as having to set the speed all over again.
Click to expand...

Since many posters do not list their home State, they may never experience the issue. My location has many hills--sometimes one right after the other. The hilly roads are usually not crowded, so I like to go downhill faster, then using that free speed on the uphill climb.
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Me too. I travel western MD I-68 and US 48 -- new 4 lane, wide open, in mountains of WV quite often. Bugs me every trip. Around home in southern MD never comes up of course.
 
Hit the "N" and coast to 100 MPH!

Nah, the CC button is all we have.
 
Yet another discovery: At low speeds even NOT in cruise control this thing will shift down to slow down whenever it senses that you WANT to slow down. Apparently it interprets taking your foot entirely of the gas at some low speed as a desire to slow down and it will shift down some to slow the vehicle. The same is true if you are very lightly applying brakes at some low speed. I could be misinterpreting this as POSSIBLY the car is going to shift into a lower gear when your speed drops below some preset amount regardless of whether you are trying to slow down or not (??) Any other interpretations ?
 
Since fewer than 1% of the speeding tickets nationwide are for single digit speeding, I typically set my CC for 5-7 MPH over the speed limit when on major highways. I am sort of glad that the CC will slow down the car on steep grades since it doesn't allow me to unknowingly go into the double digit speeding range. I can see how it could be nice to have it as a "selectable" feature. In our overly litigious society, I wonder if that would open the door to automaker lawsuits over speeding tickets when the CC was set at the speed limit. I did a little hunting around on the internet and it seems that a top complaint on CC is that on some cars, it allows you to go well over the speed limit on steep grades - and it results in speeding tickets. Apparently, that is not an acceptable defense on a speeding ticket! Looking at the complaints, it appears that the police in some states purposefully set up the speed traps at the bottom of steep grades knowing that is where speeding will most likely occur.

This is why I love these forums, it makes me think a bit about certain issues, likes or dislikes that I never really considered before.

On the opposite side of the coin... What I hate about these forums is that people sometimes complain about something that I had never noticed before - and then all of a sudden, it bothers me too! Sometimes, ignorance is bliss! :)
 
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