Holidays over...

Mar 22, 2005 40 Replies

...so I'm back.



Hello :)



Flight home was an absolute killer - flew at 9pm, to arrive back here at



9am - so by the time I went to bed last night, I'd been up for about 36 hours. The drive back from Heathrow was all sorts of fun.


P.S. Cruise Control is absolute s**te. What a ridiculous invention. The only way I can see it working, is a motorway with no other traffic, and no Police vehicles - neither of which occur in the UK.


In news: snipped-for-privacy@news4.newsguy.com, Nom decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows [snip] P.S. Cruise Control is absolute s**te. What a ridiculous invention.

Strange, I can, and do, do a 50 mile round trip 4 or 5 times a week, on the motorway, using cruise from the on ramp to the off ramp at around 75-80 mph.

When I delivered Peters 730i to him I did most of the 190 miles on cruise at a steady 80 mph.

*very* rare I have a problem with it.

I suspect it could be your driving, rather than cruise control.

Welcome back, btw.

with

get off the bloody hard shoulder.. sheesh ;-)

Bigus

Yeah, I had CC in the Jag, but traffic on the M40 often creeps below 70 when you get lorries using the inner 2 lanes or middle lane fuckwads, just leaving the fast lane for everyone else.

Bigus

In news:d1pde8$rsv$ snipped-for-privacy@blackmamba.itd.rl.ac.uk, Bigus decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Pah, cheek of it :-P

Cruise control is Gods own invention.

It's always highly amusing to me to see posts about "Cruise control being s**te", because 90% of the time they're made by muppets who don't understand the concept of cruising at a steady speed.

I use mine all the time on busy SE motorways. It's a good way of making sure you don't drift above the speed you want. But mine has a cancel/resume button on the steering wheel which makes it easier to use than some.

It is my driving. I continually vary my speed - which couldn't be more anti-cruise :)

75-80mph is just fine when you can't see what's ahead (ie, the fuzz !) but I continually squirt upto 90mph-100mph when visibility is good...and then back down again when I get to the next bend/traffic...

Ta :)

That would be me !

Steady speed ? Wassat then ? If I *can* go faster without getting caught, then I do :)

That's why most, if not all, cruise control systems have a "cancel" button, and also the "set" button also acts as an "accelerate" button as well. Exceptionally relaxing, and *much* more relaxing that using your foot, especially as you don't need to change speed all that much.

[...]

I use little squirts of speed too; on top of cruise...

Stick with it, it's a good toy. :)

A

Where you been ?

Not too :)

I used mine all the time - and I'm not exactly the sort of driver who hangs about :)

You've got buttons to adjust your speed faster/slower without touching the pedals haven't you ?

Yep. I used it for about an hour, and found I was *constantly* speeding up and down with the stalk. What's the point, when I can already do that with my foot :)

New York. It was great :)

Yep. There's a toggle switch to turn it on and off, and then there's an extra stalk under the indicator-stalk - shove up to go faster, and down to go slower. Also, touch the stalk to resume previous speed, after using throttle/brake. I found I was just using the stalk all the time, like a throttle - which wasn't as comfortable or intuitive as using my leg :)

Not wanting to sound sarky, but knowing that you don't drive at much of a constant speed then why would you think cruise control would be of any use to you?

However, were you a driver that does tend to drive at a constant-ish speed, then cruise control could quite possibly be quite a useful feature...

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news2.newsguy.com, Nom decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Trick is this.

Set the cruise at a speed which won't get you into serious s*it and isn't /that/ much quicker than the flow of traffic. I find 80-85 to be ideal. Setting it to 100 is just asking for trouble.

When you need to overtake, use the right pedal.

If you read the road correctly and anticipate what's happening around and ahead of you, you won't need to cancel the cruise at any point.

If, however, you have the driving ability of a pissed chimp, you'll have serious problems with it :-)

I think that was his point :) That cruise control is NO use to him. I must admit, its not something i reall hanker after either...

Have you ever driven a car with cruise control? It's not something you hanker after, it's somehting you experience, realise how useful it is (if you do the mileage) and like.

Mason

[...]

If you set your cruise to a base speed, say ~82mph, you can use the pedal to give little squirts, do overtakes, etc and just let it settle back to your base speed when done...

Not quite a wonderful as sliced bread, but close :)

A

Yea i have, but i don't do the mileage :)

Leeds every now and again, but the A64 is not really suitable...

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required