Yes AFTER a car is broken in cruise control (CC) can be used that way, set it and forget it.

But a new car should not be driven at the same speed for an extended period of time.

Some people, like me, find it more comfortable to put both feet flat on the floor, one reason I like CC.

When using CC you can vary your speed by pressing the two buttons, one to accelerate, one to decelerate.

So, I think that when they say don't use CC when breaking in a new car they say that because CC is usually left at a constant speed.
But you can use CC and vary your speed.

Make sense?

 

Shouldn't cruise control help get into the elusive EV mode on the 2006 HCH?

 

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Nope. It can hold it there if the conditions are right. On my 20 minute test drive, I was able to get into EV mode and engage the cruise control. I would suspect it would not have lasted very long as the conditions must be precise.

 

The cruise control will use the EV mode in the 06 HCH if the conditions are right, just as it does when the pedal is controlled manually. The CC is good at using just enough 'pedal pressure' to hold the set speed, and if the car can meet the demand with just EV, it will. Of course, due to the weak electric motor, this usually only happens on a decline or when you are over the set speed for some reason, but it will cycle in and out of EV as needed to hold a set speed.

I've done experiments on a flat road with cruise control set at 25 MPH. What I saw was a repeating cycle; the car would go into EV mode, the bars of assist would gradually increase as speed bled off (up to about 3 bars), then it would drop out of EV mode (because EV is not strong enough to hold 25 MPH on a flat road) for a few more seconds until speed increased a bit, then the cycle would repeat. Each cycle took about 5 seconds, it was a miniature pulse & glide Note that the CC is very good at holding a set speed, the speed increases/decreases were not enough to show a change on the speedometer, I could only tell they were happening by watching the instant MPG gauge.

What this showed is that the CC does use gentle enough throttle changes to engage EV, albeit not as good as a human can do (I can get 4-5 bars of assist in EV, the CC only gets 3 before it goes too far from what I saw). So I think the moral to the story is that a human concentrating on the technique can always do better than CC, but if you can't pay close attention to the assist/instant gauges and use a light foot, the CC can give you better mileage than you might get otherwise. It all depends on the skill and patience level of the driver.

 

I like to use CC as much as possible. In my experience with the HCH, the usual undulations of a flat road, such as overpasses or little 30 foot high hills, are enough to cause significant RPM changes with CC on. When driving at 70 with CC I typically get about 2300 RPM. When I hit an overpass the CC applies more throttle. The immediate reaction is about three bars of assist. Then within a couple of seconds the engine might rev up to 3000 and the assist disappears. At the top of the overpass and down the other side the opposite happens. The CC lets off the throttle. About three bars of regen kick in immediately. I hate when that happens because there's a bit of a lurch when regen suddenly kicks in. Then in a couple of seconds the CVT pulls down the RPMs and the regen disappears. If the descent is long and steep enough (not very long or very steep) the engine goes into coast mode (valves shut) with the FCD pegged at 100 MPG.

With such overpasses every few miles on the freeway there is enough variation in RPMs and engine load that I think there should be no issue with using CC during break in.