Aug 30, 2007 -
Cruising Attitude
I love to fly, in anything, to anywhere, anytime, day or night, good weather or bad, and I've never had a bad experience cruising through the clouds.
The picture was taken at about 30,000 feet somewhere over Ohio, dodging thunderstorms, on my way out to our recent meeting at the Edmunds offices. With all that time to think, my mind will travel the alternate route, and I started thinking about cruise control.
As fate would have it, after I returned from LA, my Altima was in a little bumper basher and this is the week that it's in the hospital getting patched up, forcing me to get a rental for the week. I chose a Versa specifically so I could compare the 4 speed automatic with my 6-speed.
The cars are virtually identical, and other than noting that I tend to drive in a higher gear than the automatic normally picks for me, the biggest beef I have is the way cruise control works when coupled with an automatic transmission versus the function in a manual shift vehicle.
With the manual, when I set the cruise, my speed remains constant, engine revs remain constant because it stays in whatever gear I'm in (usually 6th), and the only time things change is when I find myself on a fairly steep grade where you reach a point where the cruise kicks of and I resume manual control of the throttle. After 28 years of driving manuals in the same area, there are really only two places this happens regularly, and thus I'm prepared to take over and keep the "flight" as smooth as possible. On the highway it makes things very easy as my speed remains absolutely constant.
After three days with the automatic, I find myself not turning on cruise if I'm in any kind of traffic. Slight upgrades immediately cause a downshift, which causes the car to slow, and then surge to get back up to speed, and when that happens next to another vehicle it really makes me appear like I'm racing them and creates a lot of potential for angst and road rage. I used to think that people I was passing on an upgrade were trying to not let me pass on the highway, but now I'm pretty sure their cruise and automatic transmission were behaving as they've been programmed to behave.
I've observed this behavior on every automatic I've ever had the misfortune to rent, regardless of make or model. It's just the way it is. And just another reason I'll stick with my stick!
Cruisin' down the road
But I can't drive 55
Computer control
