Cruise control. Where do you put your foot?

[Colin_McLeod]

Hi

 

My recently purchased car has cruise control. This is my first experience of this facility and I am very impressed but I have one question - where do you put your right foot?

 

Do people hover their foot over the accelerator and brake pedal area, or do they rest it on the floor?

[Siberian Snooper]

I rest mine on the floor, or more often than not tapping along with the music.

 

 

[russ p]

Put them both up on the back seat!

[New Haven Neil]

My car has sufficient spring on the pedal that you can just rest your foot on it neutrally.  Took me ages to realise....d'oh.

[Danemouth]

On the floor  or to the right of the pedal

 

Dave

Edited August 10, 2019 by Danemouth

[Colin_McLeod]

The reason I asked was the ability to brake quickly in an emergency. Foot over pedal would give a quicker response than foot resting on the floor.

 

I must check if my car is similar to New Haven Neil's.

[SRman]

I rest mine lightly on the accelerator pedal, always ready to brake if necessary. Cruise control is great, but one can't afford to let one's attention or alertness flag.

The first car I had with cruise control was a 1994 Holden Commodore, which was already eight years old when I bought it. My OH and I went on a longish trip which included cruising along the Hume Highway towards the Victorian/New South Wales border. On the return trip, OH took over the wheel for a while, setting the speed at 100 kph, then resting her foot on the accelerator. As we approached some signposted speed cameras, I glanced over to see the speedometer reading 120 kph ... it seems she was resting her foot rather too heavily!      

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by SRman
Correcting a couple of typos.

[woodenhead]

I stopped using mine, never really have the road empty enough to use it without constantly pausing it.

 

Much more useful are the speed limiters which keep you to a maximum speed, very good in camera controlled zones.

 

 

[melmerby]

My last vehicle had a foot rest adjacent to and right of the throttle pedal.

Easy to go to the brake rather than having to lift foot to do it.

Unfortunately my latest vehicle, same make but later model, doesn't have CC.

[melmerby]

1 minute ago, woodenhead said:

 

Much more useful are the speed limiters which keep you to a maximum speed, very good in camera controlled zones.

 

Just obey the speed limits

[woodenhead]

Just now, melmerby said:

Just obey the speed limits

I do, that's why I like my limiter, in the endless 50mph zones on the motorways it's nice to set the limiter so you just need to focus on the loonies driving by you.

[Titan]

3 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I stopped using mine, never really have the road empty enough to use it without constantly pausing it.

 

 

 

Won't have been a factory fit Elgrand one then.   They automatically slow down to match the speed of the car in front.  Only trouble is sometimes they try and slow down to match the speed of the lorry you are overtaking...

[Tony Davis]

1 hour ago, Danemouth said:

On the floor  or to the right of the pedal

 

Dave

Me too, my phev has a sensor which slows/ stops / speeds up to the preset limit in reaction to what the vehicle in front is doing. I find it pretty good, but it did take a leap of faith to let it brake for me the first few times! My wife doesn't trust it though and the passenger footwell carpet is quite worn! I do tend to cancel it when approaching roundabouts though as it can brake unexpectedly and I prefer to have full control.

[Kris]

I leave my foot on the a foot rest just to the side of the peddles when I am driving my car using cruise control. When I am driving my wife's car, using cruise control I rest my foot on the floor infant of the peddles as there is not a foot rest. I don't find this as comfortable. 

[Oldddudders]

Cruise control and a separate speed limiter both feature on my Clio. I think my foot just hovers when the former is in use. I find I can use the cruise control a lot in general driving, using the steering wheel switch to increase/decrease speed in 2 kph increments, according to the vehicle in front, if there is one. On the open road it is amazing how many drivers of vehicles more expensive than mine clearly don't use cruise control. Cruise control does seem to save fuel - so why not? 

[Butler Henderson]

Switching CC off differs between models, a work colleague and myself were nearly caught out with work pool car Corsas where the CC stays on when you change gear unlike our own cars. Re foot rest or not the one that caught me out was the Mk2 Punto that did not have a foot rest to the left of the clutch whereas the Mk1 did.

[kevinlms]

15 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Cruise control and a separate speed limiter both feature on my Clio. I think my foot just hovers when the former is in use. I find I can use the cruise control a lot in general driving, using the steering wheel switch to increase/decrease speed in 2 kph increments, according to the vehicle in front, if there is one. On the open road it is amazing how many drivers of vehicles more expensive than mine clearly don't use cruise control. Cruise control does seem to save fuel - so why not? 

Not so sure that cruise control saves fuel. Certainly when set some cars seem to accelerate harshly on encountering a slight hill. Certainly more than I press the accelerator in similar circumstances.

 

However, they do save MONEY, by stopping you speeding and getting tickets. Something to be wary of in Australia, where the threshold for speeding or not is very low. 3% at 100 kmh.

 

So how about that, in Australia we easily get done for speeding, yet we can park our vehicles and talk on a non handsfree mobile, with the engine running, to keep the heater/air con going!

 

Out of speeding and having the engine running while securely and legally parked and using the mobile, I think I know which is a greater risk!

[peanuts]

my jag had a nice little foot rest to the right of the loud pedal  saddly my poverty spec kia that replaced it doesent have cruise 

 

my truck my foots flat on the floor weather im using the cruise or not its just weather its on the pedal or not 

[Colin_McLeod]

3 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Not so sure that cruise control saves fuel. Certainly when set some cars seem to accelerate harshly on encountering a slight hill. Certainly more than I press the accelerator in similar circumstances.

 

However, they do save MONEY, by stopping you speeding and getting tickets. Something to be wary of in Australia, where the threshold for speeding or not is very low. 3% at 100 kmh.

 

So how about that, in Australia we easily get done for speeding, yet we can park our vehicles and talk on a non handsfree mobile, with the engine running, to keep the heater/air con going!

 

Out of speeding and having the engine running while securely and legally parked and using the mobile, I think I know which is a greater risk!

You can save money on your calls by switching off the engine.  With the heating/air con not going you will keep the calls short.

[melmerby]

14 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Not so sure that cruise control saves fuel. Certainly when set some cars seem to accelerate harshly on encountering a slight hill. Certainly more than I press the accelerator in similar circumstances.

 

However, they do save MONEY, by stopping you speeding and getting tickets. Something to be wary of in Australia, where the threshold for speeding or not is very low. 3% at 100 kmh.

 

So how about that, in Australia we easily get done for speeding, yet we can park our vehicles and talk on a non handsfree mobile, with the engine running, to keep the heater/air con going!

 

Out of speeding and having the engine running while securely and legally parked and using the mobile, I think I know which is a greater risk!

In the UK the latest vehicles have what is called Euro6, whereby the engine has auto stop/start*, so if you stop and park up without cutting the engine manually the engine automatically cuts out but the aircon keeps going (but only for a while, then the engine will restart to keep it going!)

It stops the aircon going on/off when you stop in traffic.

*It saves fuel but doesn't work if you keep your foot on the clutch as most UK drivers do at traffic lights etc.

[peanuts]

15 minutes ago, melmerby said:

In the UK the latest vehicles have what is called Euro6, whereby the engine has auto stop/start*, so if you stop and park up without cutting the engine manually the engine automatically cuts out but the aircon keeps going (but only for a while, then the engine will restart to keep it going!)

It stops the aircon going on/off when you stop in traffic.

*It saves fuel but doesn't work if you keep your foot on the clutch as most UK drivers do at traffic lights etc.

my partner who has recently passed her test this is what they are taught now at traffic lights 1st gear foot on clutch hand brake on . also taught to run upto the lights in top gear then change to first when stationery madness !

[melmerby]

Just now, peanuts said:

my partner who has recently passed her test this is what they are taught now at traffic lights 1st gear foot on clutch hand brake on . also taught to run upto the lights in top gear then change to first when stationery madness !

No wonder today's drivers are so crap. If I did that when I learnt to drive I would have failed.

So what's the point of adopting start/stop to save fuel when the numpties learning to drive are taught to do something (which IMHO is poor driving skills) which negates it - absolutely bonkers!

 

It's little wonder that I see learners these days doing things, which inconvenience others and are also dangerous.

 

Twice recently I've had a learner pull out of a side road in front of me causing me to slow considerably, when I was travelling well under the 60mph limit that applies to the road. (there were no following vehicles)

On the second occasion the learner signalled right when approaching a T junction approaching a dual carriageway where the only route is left, presumably to show that after they turn left they were going to merge into the traffic.

Again they pulled out in front of faster traffic. The instructor either doesn't know courtesy or can't be bothered to teach the learner to give way.

 

 

[peanuts]

17 minutes ago, melmerby said:

No wonder today's drivers are so crap. If I did that when I learnt to drive I would have failed.

So what's the point of adopting start/stop to save fuel when the numpties learning to drive are taught to do something (which IMHO is poor driving skills) which negates it - absolutely bonkers!

 

It's little wonder that I see learners these days doing things, which inconvenience others and are also dangerous.

 

Twice recently I've had a learner pull out of a side road in front of me causing me to slow considerably, when I was travelling well under the 60mph limit that applies to the road. (there were no following vehicles)

On the second occasion the learner signalled right when approaching a T junction approaching a dual carriageway where the only route is left, presumably to show that after they turn left they were going to merge into the traffic.

Again they pulled out in front of faster traffic. The instructor either doesn't know courtesy or can't be bothered to teach the learner to give way.

 

 

spoke with her instructer about why she wasnt being taught to go down through box on aproach to a junction told the new rule is gears to go brakes to slow ! save wear and tear on both lunacy 

[Enterprisingwestern]

5 minutes ago, peanuts said:

spoke with her instructer about why she wasnt being taught to go down through box on aproach to a junction told the new rule is gears to go brakes to slow ! save wear and tear on both lunacy 

 

Ask him why modern automatic cars go down through the gears then, they can't all be wrong?

 

Mike.

[Colin_McLeod]

I never did understand the need to change down through the gears when stopping.  I suspect it dates back to when brakes were not as good as today.

 

The thing with automatic cars is that the automatic gearbox senses that you have slowed down so it changes down. The gearbox can't distinguish between you slowing to a stop, and you slowing a bit but not stopping, and it assumes the latter.