Hi guys,

In reading various posts about fuel economy and such, I notice that many quote their economies on the highway without using the cruise, as if using cruise will hurt your highway mileage.

Why is this? I always get the best mileage when I use the cruise, instead of "hotfooting" it and trying to keep a certain speed. Without the cruise, I can't keep a certain speed, and am always speeding up or slowing down. With the cruise, I stay at 73 mph up and down hills, and the rpm stay stable.

So, am I mis-reading what you guys are trying to say, or do you really think that cruise control hurts highway fuel economy? If so, could someone explain why it would hurt the mileage?

TIA

 

It depends. On flat ground Cruise Control is the most efficient.
In hilly areas it is less so.

 

I felt like in hilly areas the cruise would let too much speed bleed off before accelerating there by causing it to downshift. Whereas I can slowly feed in more throttle and keep it from downshifting up the hill. I used to live in flat Florida and am a cruise control junkie but where I am now has too may rolling hills and I don't use it as much.

 

I use cruse all the time on the interstate. I found that if I set the cruse on the flat the truck will hold the speed without downshifting when it gets to the hill without a problem. This is even more true when I reprogram the computer, plus for me it adds another 2mpg.