HoosierDaddy

I asked this question in the GT forum as part of a long list of questions about GT Premiums but I forgot this question would apply to other models so.....

I'm planning on ordering a Premium with manual trans and Adaptive cruise. The local dealers don't have any to test and don't know the answers to this question. I can't find the answer anywhere on-line either.

Anyway, I wasn't aware that you could get adaptive cruise on any car with a manual transmission. I recently ordered a Cadillac and couldn't get adaptive cruise because I ordered it with a manual transmission.

Obviously adaptive cruise can't work exactly like with an automatic because the car can't downshift itself when traffic slows (like from 65 to 30 on a freeway) or upshift itself when traffic speeds back up. So I want to know exactly what happens in that kind of situation.

Logic tells me I should be able to just manually shift up or down as needed to keep the revs right WITHOUT disengaging the cruise. My Cadillac does that with regular cruise. But I can't help but thinking the lawyers wouldn't let things be that simple. I mean some moron would forget to down shift until the car slows down so much it stalls or forget to upshift and drive along at redline and win if they sued Ford!

So does adaptive cruise do something like give audible or visual shift advice to protect Ford from morons? If not just what does happen to keep a driver from forgetting to shift to match the desired speed?

I'm sure they don't just disengage the cruise and require the driver to reengage it because that kind of defeats the purpose of Adaptive cruise if you have to manually accelerate and reset the cruise every few seconds in traffic. But stranger, and dumber things get done when the lawyers are involved.

Surely someone in the forums has a manual trans AND adaptive cruise and can answer this. Or maybe someone has a link to documentation on this. I can't find anything after lengthy searches on the net and the Ford site. Nothing in the owners manual either.

TIA

CoyotePremium13

The cruise control acts as any other manual vehicle with cruise control. Once the clutch is pushed in the cruise turns off. With adaptive cruise it will slow down and hit the brakes if it has to and speed back up in the same gear you are in. It is not meant to "drive" the vehicle, just slow down and speed up with minor speed adjustments. If you are going 65 and traffic slows to 25, yes the vehicle will slow to that, but it is up to you to be in the right gear to get back up to speed. If that means shifting gears you will have to reset the cruise to the desired speed or press the resume button. It is a great option to have and I love having it! To me it is well worth the extra money I had to spend.

Hope that answered your question!

HoosierDaddy

I appreciate your answer.

But for the record your first statement is NOT true. My 2013 Cadillac with manual transmission does NOT disengage cruise when I shift. If I downshift in preparation to accelerate or if I up-shift after deciding I won't need revs at hand, the cruise control stays engaged.

Sorry to hear the Mustang isn't so smart. Still may be worth the cost though. Good to hear you feel that way.

Seems kind of silly to have to hit a resume button every time I depress the clutch. Ford lawyers must be more afraid of dumb drivers than Cadillac lawyers are.

CoyotePremium13

Well a Cadillac is a bit more luxurious ha. I have never had another vehicle where I didn't press the clutch and the cruise control didn't cancel. The point of cruise control in my opinion is to stay one speed. I never needed to shift to accelerate. When I am at a speed I stay there. With adaptive cruise it just makes it so that when you have a car not going the same speed you do not have to hit the brakes which would cancel the cruise control anyway.

Garbone

You should be actively driving the vehicle while on the road, meaning, the adaptive cruise, in my opinion, shouldn't EVER have to apply the brakes for you!

AWmustang

Well then what's the point? If your opinion is that you should be the one hitting the brakes then just get regular cruise. We have the adaptive cruise in our Explorer and it makes a HUGE difference on long road trips. Especially when traffic is moving, but is just congested enough that no one can use traditional cruise. The adaptive cruise slows down and speeds up to adjust to traffic. Makes the drive much less tiring. I don't know that we'll be able to get a car with standard cruise again after having adaptive cruise.
When it comes time to really drive the car, then yeah, I want to be in control, but for a boring slog down a flat, straight boring highway, that's the perfect time to let the computer take over. Let it have all the mundane boring stuff, I say!

dgc333

I have mixed emotions with all these features like adaptive cruise or blind spot monitoring. While they have the potential to prevent accidents they also encourage paying less attention the task at hand, driving the car.

AWmustang

Didn't they say the same thing about automatic transmissions and regular cruise control?

HoosierDaddy

And they were right.

And I remove my rear-view mirrors because you get complacent if you don't have to keep turning your head. And I remove the starter to save weight and replace it with a hand crank thru the front fascia because electric starters cause us to lose upper body strength making us less fit to drive.

dgc333

Don't know what they said in the 40's with the first automatics or the 50's with the first cruise controls. But people in that time frame were much more attentive to their driving than they are these days.

When you have people that think it is OK to behind with the newspaper spread out in front of them there is an issue with taking responsibility when you are driving.

AWmustang

I agree 100%. These technologies and features can be great when used properly, but as with many things the possibility for abuse exists. But that alone isn't a reason to not embrace them.

HoosierDaddy

Go back to yelling at kids to get off your yard.

dgc333

????????

eric n

I can't imagine there is any data to support the much more attentive theory. When I was a kid in the late 60's, my mom spent a fair amount of time changing the 8 track, lighting cigarettes & smacking us kids in the back of the car with her high heel shoe. By the way she had a 69 mach 1. I really don't think anyone had much of a sense how dangerous over a ton of metal and glass moving down the road at 80 mph was. Also back in the 40's and 50's there was way less traffic which likely created a sense of devil may care safety and nonchalance.