Cruise Control Usability

For those with the 2016's already.

How's the cruise control? I live in the northeast and the 2nd gen cruise control is pretty much useless on the highway.

 

But its good around town?

 

I may differ in that opinion, as I use mine a lot and never had any issues with it. So not sure what you mean by "useless".

 

no... i don't use it at all. with hills and what not it just can't maintain speed and constantly has to downshift. Driving it myself, i can coast/give it power when it needs it and maintain speed without having to downshift at all...

i'm on my 4th second gen now and bought the trd sport cause the long bed was worth more to me than locker. I really want the sun roof and heated seats too so im leaning towards getting a dclb or and was just curious about the highway usage with the new engine.

 

Useless? Why? Never had a single issue with CC on my 2011.

 

Mine has no lack of power for hills, but the cruise control is more like "set speed +/- 10 MPH" on mine. Almost like it sets throttle position rather than speed and just holds the throttle steady regardless of ascending or descending.

I rarely use it anyway.

 

I think his term "useless" was a little over exaggerated but I do agree its poor for holding speeds around 55 on a hilly road. It will slow down a few mph going up and by the time it catches up it over does it a bit and now I'm speeding going over the top of a hill.

 

I have to agree with the OP on this.. Unless I'm on good flat highway I can't use cruise at all. As soon as you hit a hill it drop 5-10 mph before reacting at all and then accelerates an equal amount above the set speed before letting go. If I leave it off and maintain by foot I can mostly keep it at a steady gear and speed. It should be much more reactive in my boat

 

for me, its more a bother to use so i don't use it. thats why i said useless.

this is basically what i meant. I should have clarified more with hilly vs. flat highway. The issue i have, is there are no flat highways around me. my tdi and my wife's mx5 and hold a mph within lets say 1-2 mph and usually don't have to downshift at all.

i wanted to ask the question on how the new engines/tranny/programming are working out if anyone lives in a similar area. I know they hit the southwest/cali first so it might be limited so far

 

I think the cruise control on the 2016s seems just fine. I used it up in the Colorado mountains over the weekend, and it kept the speed +-5 mph. Plus I really enjoy the digital speedometer that the center screen displays. I think it is speed control, not necessarily throttle control.

 

imo, there are very few cruise controls on any make that do will in "hilly" mountain driving.

The cruise in the 06 Tacoma I had worked liked the cruise in the 09 Ram or the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee. MPH drops about 5mph and a downshift occurs to maintain set speed.

 

I'm with the cruise control sucks crowd as well. I think it could be programmed to work a little better with less downshifting.

 

The cruise on my 2011 BMW 335d works great on hills or flat surface. Likelya different design from the Toyota but I don't remember there being an issue on my 2003 Taco.

 

I am sure with the weak engine it is still useless in the hills. The Ford Edge has like +40 HP and +85 ft lbs on a vehicle with a similar weight.

 

Must be an auto thing, my 4 cyl handles hills fine in 5th gear. Sure it feeds it more gas depending on the hill and loses mph on the way up but it stays +/- 5mph of what I set it at. Nowhere near any useless feel or actions about it. Use it every morning all 30 miles to work on frwy since I drive predawn/prerush hr traffic. I know what you mean about automatic and cruise control. My car will do to much downshifting in auto mode so I use cc only in manual mode...........

 

My 05 V6 does fine usually, being a stick it dumps more gas to keep speed.

 

Its New Jersey...I was up there a couple weeks ago with the MX 5. I agree, Cruise control is impossible to use .................because of the traffic , the toll Tp and Parkway , Route 3, Route 46, Rt 80......I couldn't use cruise either. Maybe south Jersey is better.

 

This is how it is on any Toyota. All of our Camry loan vehicles are like this, my GFs Camry is like this, GFs Dads Tundra is like this.

 

Trying to use CC in an urbanish area is a recipe for frustration.