Does using the Cruize Control feature on long trips on the 06 FEH hurt or improve your MPG?

--Rico

If you are patient, and you lift your foot going down hills and try to keep constant RPM while going uphill (even if you loose a bit of speed) you can do better than the cruise control does. I'm not saying it HURTS you to use the cruise, but you can do better making your own decision.

But frankly if the trip is long enough, I'm too impatient and I'll just use the cruise. in an 4WD FEH '06 in 70F weather on the freeway at 70MPH I get about 29 doing that.

Cruise control is especially bad on hills.

If you are in a nearly flat area, go ahead and use it.

I've noticed that it's better than I am at mantaining a constant speed, but when it accelerates, it's like it's flooring it. It allowes the RPM's to go much higher (3500-4000) than I like (1500-3000), and that can't be good for gas mileage.

Generally it's a good idea on relatively level terrain to allow the CC to control your speed, then disengage it when you go into hilly terrain, bleed off some speed as you ascend, regain it/coast on your way down.

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Personally I've always had better mileage when controlling it with my foot rather than using the cruise control. But it's not much different, and setting and forgetting about your speed is sometimes worth it.

2005 Ford Escape Hybrid - Titanium Green, 4WD, Appearance Pkg, Leather, Nav System

I use the cruise control at pretty much every highway opportunity, because it's real flat around here. Plus if my foot was on the gas pedal I would subconsciously try to go with traffic, which is usually about 70-75 mph. I need to go 55 to get good mpg.

Best trip: 48.9 mpg over 17.9 miles (scangauge)
Best tank: 40.7 mpg over 606 miles (calculated)

On my one long highway trip (thru NJ), I got between 27 and 28 MPG. Quite a drop for me. I used the cruise control all the way, and I believe that is the cause of my mileage drop.

I kept the cruise control set to the speed limit of 65 mph, and stayed in the right lane.

However, I did notice that the cruise control would rev the ICE up to 3,000 rpm, or more, in an attempt to maintain exactly 65 going up the hills. In hind sight, I think that is one of the major causes of my drop in mileage. If I was controlling speed, I would have let my MMH drift up to 70 or so going down hills, and let it slowly drift down to 60 going back up the next hill.

On my next trip (Memorial Day weekend), I think I will try the same route w/o using the cruse control, and see what my mileage ends up being.

Best single LD trip: 35.3mpg

Well, I am back.

Took the same route as last time. Same load (passengers and luggage). Same traffic conditions.

This time I got between 33 and 34 MPG.

The only difference? This time I didn't use the cruise control at all. I went "manual", and of course, did all the normal little tricks one normally use when driving a hybrid.

So, without the cruise control, I went from my worst tank, to my best.

Best single LD trip: 35.3mpg

I've wondered about the cruise control mileage hit and some of the different techniques that have been talked about that supposedly improve gas mileage over cruise control.

What I was wondering about is if you can really compare setting the cruise to say, 65 mph to driving at 65 mph max and slowing on the uphills and accelerating back on the downhills? If you slow to 55 going up the hill and return to 65 going down, your average speed is no longer 65 mph as it would be with the cruise set. So, you are comparing your mileage at 65 mph to a lower average speed.

I've noticed the higher revs climbing hills with the cruise control set but I've also noticed that I lose a good deal of speed climbing hills when I don't have the cruise set and don't have my eyes on the speedometer. If I try to manually hold the speed climbing hills, the engine revs about the same as if the cruise control was in charge.