Isn't that always the case? Personally I stick with GM vehicles. SO far I haven't saw a GM with the feature you are looking for. Maybe on one of the new concept cars, but you have to be living in Detroit and a high executive to test one of those out...
On current Chrysler vehicles (since at least 1997) the auto tranny will downshift to a lower gear if speed increases 2-3MPH above the setpoint of the Cruise Control. RPM's jump way up when in a downhill "run-away" situation. That tends to keep downhill speed in check fairly well.
While I used the cruise control, I didn't really have the need or desire to try out the speed limiter function. It looked pretty straightforward with a digital display to let you know what speed you've set it at.
The CC on my 69 caddy convertible was like that. If you tried to go past the set speed it pushed back at you with progressively more force the faster you tried to go. It didn't stop you from going over your set speed but you knew when you were doing it.
"Jim Warman" wrote in news:eYf6f.39305$Io.1820@clgrps13:
Some cars, mostly French ones it would appear, also have a speed governor function built into the cruise control.
It prevents acceleration over a preset speed unless you press the accelerator hard, where it'll override until you back off again.
I don't believe any of these will physically prevent you from accelerating beyond the chosen speed but as was mentioned cars with an electronic automatic gearbox may be linked such that the ratio is dropped to prevent the speed breaching the set limit when rolling downhill. However this seems to be anecdotal and might simply be a matter of the auto box shifting at that point anyway.
Fundamentally they are not there to enforce any rules per se nor will actually stop the driver from breaking the limit. It is just a way that the driver can avoid accidentally accelerating over the limit. The driver always chooses the limit, and for safety's sake the system doesn't stop the car breaching the limit if the driver presses the accelerator hard.
Some cars (my old Alfa 147 for instance) have a buzzer that you can set to tell you if you go over a certain speed. This is almost useless.
Surely the whole idea of a cruise control is to set the maximum speed? Sure you can over-ride it, but then this also applies to any speed limiter fitted to cars.
You can't set it to 40 or whatever round town then drive 'normally' in traffic and rely on it to stop you exceeding the limit.
You'll be doing 40 all the time - could get exciting!
A limiter will stop you doiing over the limit even if you press your foot down (to a point).
Cruise keeps you at a set speed regardless of required throttle changes. Two totally different things but closely related in their sensing/control functions.
If one would be better served by reading their owners manual to discover how CC actually works, rather than listing to all the disinformation that is being posted on the subject in this NG.
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