Bill Putney wrote:
> Daniel Who Wants to Know wrote:
>
>> I have written about the '95 GC SE that I got recently before but I
>> noticed a strange (to me) behavior that I had never heard of before.
>> On an 86 mile round trip that I do twice a week I usually set the
>> speed/cruise control for 54MPH (55 speed limit) and I noticed that
>> when I was going down a hill and the speed hit 60 that the trans
>> down****fted to help keep my speed down.
>
>
> It's a feature on the LH cars too - probably most car these days. It is
> generally helpful, but can be annoying in generally hilly terrain as you
> go down one hill and crest another (if anyone is familiar with hiway 460
> East of Lynchburg and Appomattox, VA, that is the exact worst-case for
> what I'm talking about).
>
> Also, if you have the cruise set just below ticket threshold for the
> straight-and-level, this will put you well over that on a long
> downgrade. I am in the habit (on two particular hills that I drive on
> my daily commute) of punching the 'Decel' button 3 or 4 times (drops
> cruise control setpoint 3 or 4 mph) just before the start of the
> downgrade to start that down****ft earlier and stay safely below the 'get
> a ticket' threshold, and then to punch the 'Accel' button 3 or 4 times
> (ups the setpoint 6 to 8 mph) at the bottom for the long descent, then
> hit the 'Decel' button 3 or 4 times again when returning to straight and
> level to return to the original setpoint.
>
> This will never be a completely acceptable speed control augmentation
> for all terrains. If they programed it to hold the speed too tight, the
> constant up and down****fting would be very annoying on minor terrain
> variations. The way they have them set now works well for relatively
> level terrain. In constant short up/down hill, the constant ****fting is
> annoying and does not hold speed well; on long grades, it allows way too
> much speed variation on hills if your goal is too travel just below the
> speeding ticket threshold on the level terrain using the same setpoint.
>
> Bill Putney
> (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
> address with the letter 'x')
GM doesn't use this feature at least as recently as 2005. I got spoiled
by my friend's Concorde which does.
nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
|
