3rd. | >| After several seconds, it started switching between 2nd and 3rd rather | >| quickly, spending about 1/2 second in each gear. The service | >| department at my dealer said "Oh yeah, it'll do that". Email response | >| from Toyota corporate quoted the owners manual "When driving on | >| slippery or steep roads, do not use the cruise control". Granted, | >| this is a fairly rare situation, but still I don't think it should do | >| that. What are your thoughts? | >| | >| - les | >| | >
| >There isn't a problem! When the engine gets loaded down the tranny | >downshifts. Followed by the rpm climbing back up where it shifts back | >up. My '99 Tacoma does the same thing. | | Toybloata's cruise control seems not to have a 'soft' edge as some others | do, It drops in speed, slams down, then stays in until well past regaining | speed. | | The best cruise control I've ever encountered was in two rental Penske | trucks. Seemed to sense the terrain and NOT slam about but just allow some | speed loss and then drop down and continue smoothly pulling. NEVER over | rev'ved that engine the way Toybloata does in my Taco if I don't kill the | 'cruise' in time. | | Truly only useful for reasonably flat cruising. | | It's about the only thing I truly, completely dislike in the Taco, but it's | just poor engineering. I also get better milage with mine OFF! |
I agree that Toyota's cruise control is "too tight". Even on level ground here in Texas it is constantly hunting back and forth of my set speed. My GM Safari van cruise control is much better. What I should have said was that there isn't a problem other than that's the way Toyota designed it.