driving slow : your views ?

roswell

totally disagree with doing 55 on a motor way, your not only a danger to yourself but to other road users if the conditions are suitable you should be keeping up with the flow of traffic not impeding it.

if your not confident enough to do / almost meet the limit with suitable braking distances etc then you need to question if you are safe to be driving on NSL / 70 mph roads.

RichardD1970

Cornucopia wrote: »

I would definitely recommend cruise control. I've had this on my last 5 cars, over a period of maybe 15 years (4 Citroens and a Renault).

Sorry to say, but you have just lost any credibility with the so called, self proclaimed "experts" on this forum with that revelation. :rotfl:

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

roswell wrote: »

totally disagree with doing 55 on a motor way, your not only a danger to yourself but to other road users if the conditions are suitable you should be keeping up with the flow of traffic not impeding it.

if your not confident enough to do / almost meet the limit with suitable braking distances etc then you need to question if you are safe to be driving on NSL / 70 mph roads.

Actually, someone doing 55 is not really a problem on the motorway as long as they drive sensibly and actively, cooperating with lorries as they will be keeping up with the flow of traffic in the first lane on a typical well used motorway. A genuine 55 will cause problems as lorries will be hammering around and 56 and determined to get that last 1mph, but also will then be messing around on hills.

It is not so long ago that the Goverment promoted driving at 50mph in the days of fuel crises and there is no obligation to drive at 70, what ever the 80+ speeders believe.

Cornucopia

RichardD1970 wrote: »

Sorry to say, but you have just lost any credibility with the so called, self proclaimed "experts" on this forum with that revelation. :rotfl:

I'm sure that's true.

In fact, these have been great cars, with the latest being a low emission vehicle (£30 road tax) but still with huge torque and a reasonable turn of speed. Still looks like a family hatchback, though!

Perhaps I need flames down the sides or something?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Cornucopia wrote: »

I'm sure that's true.

In fact, these have been great cars, with the latest being a low emission vehicle (£30 road tax) but still with huge torque and a reasonable turn of speed. Still looks like a family hatchback, though!

Perhaps I need flames down the sides or something?

I had a Citroen GS - back in the day when Citroens were proper French cars: full hydraulic self-levelling suspension, hydraulic powered brakes with about 5mm of travel from off to locked(not just assisted), inboard disc brakes, flat 4 air cooled engine, indicators that were not self-cancelling but really easy to use, and super-slippery so the 1222cc engine could nearly hit a ton. No power steering with its single spoke steering wheel.

These days too many mates with horror stories of electrical faults.

Cornucopia

I've found them to be reasonably reliable. In fact, it was the Renault that had most problems, though that was a convertible.

Most embarrassing for Citroen was a previous C4, bought brand new, where the engine mounts failed after about 6000 miles and the whole engine and transmission were displaced.

But the current C4 (bought second-hand) is a real gem - 1.6 HDi with 6-speed EGS gearbox and the 110bhp engine variant.

Back in the day, I had an XM with the hydraulic suspension, and that was a great car, too.

More recently, I had a DS3, which was great fun to drive, and being one of the first in the UK attracted lots of attention.

NBLondon

Cornucopia wrote: »

When you drive on CC a lot, you really start to notice how inconsistent other drivers' speed can be. Hills, particularly, where they let their speed fade on the way up, and then let the vehicle charge down the other side.

That really astounded me when I first started using CC, the number of times that I would close up on someone, possibly pass them and then find them re-passing a few minutes later. On a flat, uncluttered motorway with my CC set at say 72mph. Even more noticeable whe I set it at 48mph in Lane 1 of a 50 limit urban dual carriageway and watch Lane 2 surge back and forth between the speed cameras.

It isn't lazy, because you do have to read the road a smidgen more and know when to switch off and control the fluctuations by hand (well - right foot actually). Mine also has the convenience that if I need to speed up to make an overtake neatly, I can just press the accelerator - let the turbo do the work - and then go back to pre-set speed when I'm back in lane.

Shielder

I recently got a car with CC and I have noticed a big difference in fuel economy between manual driving and using the cruise control.

On a longish run from Cheshire to Gloucester, I got just under 60mpg from my Avensis doing a mostly steady 70mph (apart from the roadworks).

On a long run up to the Shell petrol station at Loaninghead (on the A9) not using CC, I couldn't better 50-53mpg.

CC definitely helps the fuel economy.

Iceweasel

I use Cruise Control a lot - on long motorway journeys - mostly in Europe.

The northern stretches of the M6 are often completely traffic free, especially late at night passing through the lake district or the M74 heading North to Glasgow - perfect for CC.

Common sense needs to applied though and busy motorways where you would have to be engaging / dis-engaging it every few minutes is just stupid, and asking for trouble.

I don't think CC makes for lazy drivers at all - some folks still think the same for auto-gearboxes.

We have loads of driver's aids these days:

Active Cruise Control brakes the car and keeps a set distance from the vehicle in front.

Lane Control warns if the car strays too close to a white line - not sure if it actually corrects or just warns though.

I expect what will come next is a pin type of gizmo which would extend downwards from the front of the car and engage in a slot in the road surface.

That way I could have a bit of shut eye or watch the scenery go past whilst I wait for my destination to appear.

It would also allow me to concentrate better on my hands-free smart-phone reading my latest texts and e-mails out load to me.

Nick_C

I've enjoyed using cruise control when driving long distances in Canada on quiet roads. In the States though, combined with a lack of lane discipline, its a real PITA on Freeways. You get people setting their CC to slightly different speeds, and cars in adjacent lanes travelling at similar speeds make overtaking a nightmare.

Can't see I would get much benefit from CC on our overcrowded UK motorways. It would be great if everyone use it and set it to same speed, but that is just not going to happen.

I've also found myself getting slightly bored when driving an automatic with CC. You are basically just steering, and I think its easier to lose concentration and be lulled into a false sense of security.

I certainly seem to see more accidents in the US and Canada than I do in the UK.