I was testing a coworkers commute in the HAH and I decided to be fair and use Cruise Control mostly as to give a proper idea as to likely mileage he would receive. I found that the Cruise control was an excellent driver. I noticed that it did everything possible to stay in "eco" mode. It seemed like I would have to have a pretty awesome feel in foot to equal it. Test yeilded 35.6 mpg on about a 40 mile commute.

After getting the sense that the CC worked hard to attain FE (I maybe wrong but that was the sense I got), I started using CC in my city commute which moves at around 35 to 40 miles per hour. I feel this may be a tool that gives your foot some rest and has the computer pinpoint the proper depth of throttle for remaining in eco mode.

Any thoughts?

What speed was the 35.6 mpg 40 mile commute?

70mph in very hilly freeway (210 to pasadena) with ac.

Hi ilan22; I have personally found that believe it or not it can give your wallet a break also for these little speed traps that produce such great revenue. Set cruise at 35 or 40 miles per hour and you don't have to worry about getting that paper work from your friendly police person. It-Works:

Terry

My experience is the opposite- all cruise controls work to maintain SPEED, not engine load. As such it doesn't care about eco or not- it does what it needs to do to maintain XX miles per hour. By coincidence it may be maintaining ECO better than your foot can.

Having said that, initially CC probably will get you better mpg than your foot, until you train your foot to achieve a light touch. Once you get a feel for maintaining LOAD as opposed to just SPEED, your mpg shoots through the roof.

Case in point: 33 mile rolling hill commute, >80% highway. 65mph nominal.
With CC: 38.x mpg.
Untrained foot (when I 1st bought it): 36mpg.
Now, with trained foot: 41mpg on a bad day. Yeah, my speed drops to 60 on hills, but the engine load is more constant.

^ good argument that goes to show CC is more useful in highway driving than city

2003 toyota prius, 55 mpg lifetime starting.