Your Preference for Hwy Driving - Cruise/No-Cruise?

I got my words kinda mixed up. I should have clarified coasting vs decelerating more. Good catch.

VeeDubTDI said:

A. I use cruise as much as possible except when it's impractical.

I wish more people would use cruise control. It makes speeds more consistent and traffic flows better. It's obnoxious when another car on the road keeps speeding up and slowing down over and over again.

Click to expand...

Post of the week. Ever notice how these people are also forever in the middle lane? Nobody to pass? Middle lane. Want to go faster than other middle-lane traffic? Ride someone's else's bumper in the middle lane. Want to adjust the radio? Slow down to 80 km/h in the middle lane, then stare at the radio without looking up for 15 seconds. Zero driver engagement.

RDC98tdi...ya I forgot about that. But I would assume if the hill was steep and long enough that the savings would still be better in neutral as you'd get up some good speed. (Although I almost never do the neutral thing as the car gets great mileage anyway and doing this wouldn't contribute much I would think.)

nkgagne...Totally agree. In general more people these days seem to be a lot more distracted or oblivious to what's going on around them. Driving to work gets more interesting and more dangerous every year. Which reminds me, I have to get one or two of those in-car video cameras....might come in handy.

I think it's easy to tell what option I like.

I had considered getting that same plate at one point. Very nice!

VeeDubTDI said:

It isn't quite that cut-and-dry. Decelerating in gear is more efficient if you need to control speed, but coasting in neutral is more efficient if you are trying to preserve momentum. There is a huge discussion about this in the fuel economy forum and it is definitely more complex than just "in gear is better because it doesn't inject fuel."

Click to expand...

agreed. I have a big hill which I go up/down each day (on the highway). If I coast down the hill in gear, I can see the FE go up, and my speed remains constant, but at the bottom of the hill, I need to start accelerating to maintain speed for the next (smaller) hill.

Recently, I've tried taking the same downhill in neutral. FE tops out at 200mpg when the engine is at idle, but my momentum lets the car accelerate slightly, so by the time I get to the bottom of the hill, I have enough momentum to get me up the next hill without pressing the accelerator as much.

My empirical testing has led me to believe this leads to higher FE, for my case.

Depends.. On my commute to and from work, always use my right foot. If I'm travelling up north on 93 in light traffic, cruise control gets turned on.

Wolf359 said:

agreed. I have a big hill which I go up/down each day (on the highway). If I coast down the hill in gear, I can see the FE go up, and my speed remains constant, but at the bottom of the hill, I need to start accelerating to maintain speed for the next (smaller) hill.
Recently, I've tried taking the same downhill in neutral. FE tops out at 200mpg when the engine is at idle, but my momentum lets the car accelerate slightly, so by the time I get to the bottom of the hill, I have enough momentum to get me up the next hill without pressing the accelerator as much.
My empirical testing has led me to believe this leads to higher FE, for my case.

Click to expand...

Bingo!

akrievins said:

I think it's easy to tell what option I like.

Click to expand...

IF you ever get fed up with VWoC, you can always move the plate[tag] to the "BowTie" brand, and not feel out of place....

Option F - use an instant fuel economy gauge. All vehicles will have different characteristics. Turbos are more efficient under load, so I will pulse and glide(0% throttle = zero fuel!) more with my tdi. In my chev silverado with active fuel management(V8-V4 mode) the V4 mode can only tolerate light loads, so I will hold in V8 (at approx 11L/100km) then let the truck pick up speed then once I hit a downslope I will kick the throttle back to V4 and I can hold 8-9L/100km for long stretches. This technique requires alot of concentration and massive speed swings(95km/hr-135km/hr). I just drove 1500km round trip in two days like this and probably picked up 15% over cruise control easily(830km range vs 700km). I find the difference in my tdi from foot to CC much less.

nkgagne said:

Post of the week. Ever notice how these people are also forever in the middle lane? Nobody to pass? Middle lane. Want to go faster than other middle-lane traffic? Ride someone's else's bumper in the middle lane. Want to adjust the radio? Slow down to 80 km/h in the middle lane, then stare at the radio without looking up for 15 seconds. Zero driver engagement.

Click to expand...

How long have you been driving (or observing) the idiocies that go on behind the wheel in this country? You want to talk about lane discipline, fine. How 'bout we add lack of use of turn signals, which is turning into a lost art? How about the left elbow continually crooked holding the phone to the ear while the driver attempts the one-armed turn in a congested intersection. These, and other things, are the stuff I only see on a daily basis. We'll leave discussion of the really hair-raising crap for another episode....

There's a thread for that.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=292262

Rico567 said:

How 'bout we add lack of use of turn decorators

Click to expand...

Fixed it for you.

"As you can clearly see, I'm already changing lanes. How bout I decorate it with a signal flash..."

I wouldn't own a car without CC. I use it as much a possible, especially on roads that I know the cops hide on.

I only use cc on flat stretches of road. It works better in this car than any other I've driven but my foot is still better with hills.

I'm guessing the flatter the geography the more likely you are too utilize the cc.

I use it plenty in the mountains.

I prefer cruise control for highway driving because I can just set it for the selected speed, posted limit on Interstates usually, or maybe a bit over depending on the state. I don't have to worry about my foot getting heavy as the drive continues. I can concentrate on traffic and road conditions and not have to worry about my speed. If someone needs passed, my foot will become activated until they're passed then it's off the loud pedal and right back to my set speed. I've never found a hill that requires anything but 6th in the DSG, if somewhere in the high torque band won't get me over the hill I'm going too slow anyway.

no cruse better mpg I have rarely used cruse

just as a side note 18 wheelers get the most power when the cruse is set and fuel pedal is activated

I always use cruise when I can. Generally I find it does quite well with hills, except obviously when I have to shift gears.

Cruise can improve your economy if your speed tends to waver a bit. The less variation in your speed the better.

What I'd like to say is...No cruise. Pedal to the floor, WOT all the way.

Sorry...lost my cheap good parking down town, so have to take transit now, since last week. First time in 14 years....and I dislike it just as much as I did back then.
It's that or pay $200 to $300 per month for crappy outdoor stalls with no outlets to plug into in winter.


Driving to work was a pain....but I so miss it.

Terrific-In-Tahoma said:

IF you ever get fed up with VWoC, you can always move the plate[tag] to the "BowTie" brand, and not feel out of place....

Click to expand...

I actually considered that! Watched a few youtube videos of the VW vs. the Cruze diesels... The plate would really be fitting then!

I drive about 120-125 miles daily round trip & I like to set cruise control since 97% of my driving is on the highway.

VeeDubTDI said:

It isn't quite that cut-and-dry. Decelerating in gear is more efficient if you need to control speed, but coasting in neutral is more efficient if you are trying to preserve momentum. There is a huge discussion about this in the fuel economy forum and it is definitely more complex than just "in gear is better because it doesn't inject fuel."

Click to expand...

I prefer having the transmission in the appropriate gear for the speed I'm travelling as in an emergency situation, I'll have the power I need on tap if I need to get out of the way of something.

Some things are just not worth doing, kind of like turning the engine off to glide or drafting on the ass end of a transport truck

As for the discussion, cruise nearly all the time. One of the best vehicles I've ever driven for setting the cruise and forgetting about it.