I've only had my HCH for less than two weeks, so I'm still getting accustomed to the best driving style (though I've been reading this forum for months). I've noticed that, on the highway, my MPG always suffers when I use cruise, even on flat terrain. Am I just imagining this? I've always heard the conventional wisdom that cruise is generally the most fuel-effecient mode of operation that one can drive in. Maybe it just doesn't take full advantage of the hybrid powertrain?

 

I agree, the MPG I realize suffers also when in cruise control.

I use cruise control when I want to limit my speed, for example, going through a small town where the fund raising committee may be active, to keep my speed at 30 mph in a 30 mph zone.

Remember that half the equation in the mpg game is the driver. The cruise control can't see a traffic slow down 100-200 meters down the road and lift off the gas. It can't see a decline or incline and anticipate the power necessary to get the car through the condition.

 

It seems like the opposite to me. I commute on an interstate where everyone is going 75-80MPH, and I seem to get better gas mileage with the cruise control on. If it's not on, I'll usually let up on the gas, slow down too much, then have to accelerate again. With the cruise control, my speed is constant, so there's not so much catching up to do.

 

I'll have to side with the "cruise control is a benefit" crowd. I use the cruise in city street driving every chance I get, and on the highway when it is appropriate.

I live in Pa-HO-Nix AZ where almost all the roads are flat. If I see a little hill coming up, I usually speed up a tad then kill the cruise right before it starts to try to maintain speed on the hill and I start losing real-time MPG. Then once past the hill on flat road again, I reset the cruise.

I have tried it without the cruise also, and seems like that little computer is better at maintaining a steady speed than my lousy foot.....

 

The salesman at Howdy Honda told me not to use CC until I'd reached 3K miles, but during my 600-mile round trip to Oklahoma last weekend, I couldn't resist. I was flabbergasted by how well the CC drove the car. I actually learned some probably valuable lessons from it.

The only thing I would do differently from the CC's method is let the car accellerate over the speed limit, to some degree, on downhill grades, in order to gain momentum for the inevitable uphill to follow.

 

I think CC would work on flat terrain and with no traffic.

CC cant' keep a traffic buffer, anticipate changing conditions.
One of my traffic pet peeves is being behind another car with CC on driving the posted limit. In that instance I need to create a huge buffer, or suffer pulling the next hill with needlessly low MPG for a much longer time.

I've noticed in my own car that the CC will often "fish" for the best acceleration point: Suppose I'm on a flat area holding 70MPG and approach a hill and don't want to go slower. Suppose I have to drop my MPG to 56MPG to overtake this hill. It's a smooth transition from 70 to 56 to 70 again.

With CC there is often a large, unnessessary swing in MPG. For example:
If CC tackles the same hill it will likely begin around 70MPG until the beginning of the hill.
As the hill begins it has no idea how much load there is going to be so for a moment it drops down below 40 and might even use Assist. Then rises above 60 before settlling to around 52-54. It doesn't try to pinpoint max FE for the given situation: It just knows that 52-54MPG holds the speed for that load.
That's a significant drop in MPG vs. manual.
If I approach another hill the above is repeated.
Sometimes these fishing swings are larger than other times.
If I roll down the hill on the other side I still get the same MPG manual vs CC.

This may explain why my CC can get more than 10 less MPG over a given trip.

The only time I'll briefly switch it on is to either stretch my Right leg or take my Right shoe off for a better feel. Then it's off again.

I'm not sure about +75MPH as I can't remember the last time I had it that fast...

 

I love my CC! I drive in a combination of terrain, about 20 miles each way to work. I typically get 46 when going short distances, but when I drive 100 miles I will get around 60mpg w/ CC. Like I saw in a post, it helps because you do not have to accelerate to catch up.

 

I use CC a lot.
Of course I tap on the decel button when I need to slow down.
I ususally leave about 4 seconds between clicks.
This slows me down so gradually that it almost matches the rate I would slow down coasting in neutral.
If I am going up a hill I will adjust speed down.
Down a steep hill I'll pop it into neutral.

So I guess I use a "hybrid" of cruise control and sort of a smart strategy.
But 95% of the time for my conditions I am in CC with both feet flat on the floor.

My lifetime avg for 27 tanks is 59.5 MPG for a 2004 HCH CVT that is one of the less efficient AT-PZEVs.
Not too bad.

 

I don't use my cruise control for my daily commute, because in my daily commute, I have familiarity with the roads and the traffic and can manage my speed/mileage better myself that way. Also, even though that daily commute is interstate driving, it is near Boston, so the traffic speeds are not super consistent for cruising anyway. On the other hand, I found cruise control very helpful on a road trip I just got back from - I had five or four passengers so the acceleration of my Hybrid Civic was quite significantly dampened, and I was on interstate highways nearly the whole time, for long stretches that I wouldn't have wanted to be doing without cruise control anyway. I did tend to use the accel and decel buttons quite a lot, adding to the 'video game' aspect of the driving, to match my speed with the rest of the traffic and so forth. I also think it helped because I wasn't used to how my Civic performed with so much weight in it, so I would have had difficulty driving it for efficiency as well as I do when I'm alone. I may begin using cruise control for more of my commute, we'll see.

 

I try to use the CC whenever possible, even on some city streets and it helps keep my MPG constant. The terrain in the valley at least in North Phoenix, is mostly inclines and very little flat area.