I am interested to know if, when using cruise control and when the car needs more power, does the electr assist come into play first before additional gas or does it operate the same as w/o cruise where one must depress the pedal, which "feels like a combination of gas and electr asst ? It may be my inagination but it seems to do just that, which would mean one can get better mileage with cruise than without. On a significant hill, the assist kicks in but so does the gas, I am really refering to a slight incline that just needs a little "assist" .....pun intended....... BTW I am at about 1300 miles on the car, 410 miles on this tank and getting between 43.9 - 44.2 mpg according to the guage which is 1-2 mpg better than the last couple of tanks. Looking forward to getting 500 miles before filling up ! Really enjoying the car......Pete

I've got a HCH with a manual and I don't think the cruise works any different from pushing the pedal. The cruise does a fantastic job of keeping the speed dead on at the expense of mileage. You should be able to beat the mileage you get with the cruise control on.

As a five month owner of a manual tranny 2004 HCH, I can assure you that on a FLAT or LIMITED GRADE road, the cruise on the HCH does a PERFECT JOB of maxxing out MPG. And in addition, the computer control is far more excellent at maintaining a steady pressure than a human foot could possibly be.

I use the cruise all the time and turn it off only when I have an incline that will cause it to accel in ways I don't want it to (in other words, when I see that the real-time MPG meter is dropping.)

So to each their own methods, but for me, when the real-time meter is hovering around 80-120 when I have been cruising on a flat road at 40 miles per hour for a mile or so, I could not possibly do better with my foot.

I'm not a good authority on hilly terrain in this car, because I have not really experienced that on a daily basis. But for flat roads, I would consider myself an expert. :ph34r:

Two things I wish I had were:

1. Insight MPG capabiligy
2. Flat roads

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT