Cruise control

[mickofoz]

NZTiguan, the Cruise will turn off as soon as you hit the breaks, as you know. What you may have not yet experienced though is that the automatic gear box will switch to a lower gear if it detects long breaking on a downhill run. At least mine does, I must have a special gearbox if I'm the only one to experience this.

[dogbowl]

All cars do that

Except my Honda Accord Euro 2008. Has a 5-speed auto, downshifts to keep speed down going down a hill. I think they call it Grade Logic, works a treat.

[Swallowtail]

NZTig - the Passats do. With cruise control ON the car has an active downhill assist program that will change down automatically to attempt to keep the car's speed to what the cruise control is set at. I actually said this above: "Hill descent assistance (like my R36 has, not the 4WD down rocky mountain slopes type) will use the gearbox to downshift to attempt to keep the speed at the specified cruise control setting going down hills, but does not access the brakes, and is not related to ACC."

With cruise control OFF you can engage this by touching (only very lightly) the brakes, and it will interpret this as "we want to slow down" and the gearbox will downshift to suit. Quite aggressively if you keep your foot only lightly on the brake - as long as the downchange will not result in the engine going over a certain RPM (I think it's 4300 or something).

[NZTiguan]

NZTiguan, the Cruise will turn off as soon as you hit the breaks, as you know. What you may have not yet experienced though is that the automatic gear box will switch to a lower gear if it detects long breaking on a downhill run. At least mine does, I must have a special gearbox if I'm the only one to experience this.

Yep, mine does this too, down hill or even on the flat it changes down to allow engine braking. It's a great gearbox BUT as a number of people have found it will NOT do this with the Cruise ON which is what the OP was talking about.

NZTig - the Passats do. With cruise control ON the car has an active downhill assist program that will change down automatically to attempt to keep the car's speed to what the cruise control is set at. I actually said this above: "Hill descent assistance (like my R36 has, not the 4WD down rocky mountain slopes type) will use the gearbox to downshift to attempt to keep the speed at the specified cruise control setting going down hills, but does not access the brakes, and is not related to ACC."

That's great to know, sorry I missed reading it before. I did know a few cars were coming out with that system (which I mistakenly "called" ACC, sorry) but didn't realise some VWs had it already. You'd think if they had it in one VW they'd put it in them all wouldn't you ? cos it certainly would be a handy addition and as the gearbox already downshifts so effectively on braking you'd think the link would be reasonably simple !!!

Cheers

[jfranek]

I am not a VW fan. I buy cars because I need them. When I make reference to Mazda cars that I owned in the past, it is not advertising for Mazda. Mazdas aren't perfect cars. The fact that I bought the Tiguan means that I considered it better than the Mazda offerings.

The Tiguan is my first european car. It has lots of high-tech stuff - parking assistance that turns the steering wheel, electric parking brake etc.

Please understand my disappointment when I realised that with all this high tech, the cruise control is not capable of holding the speed even on a moderate downhill. With the omnipresence of speed cameras these days, this is particularly significant shortcoming, in my opinion.

Joe

P.S. If you think that this is a forum for fans only, please let me know, because I have another 'issue' with the Tiguan I would like to discuss.

[Swallowtail]

jfranek - there are very few cars out there with true 'speed control' cruise systems as opposed to run of the mill throttle control cruise systems. I would suggest that your disappointment may (given the price range and target market of the Tig) stem from an unrealistic expectation... and that's not me as a 'fan', that's just reality.

As to posting other issues - go for it.

[Sharkie]

The Tiguan is my first european car. It has lots of high-tech stuff - parking assistance that turns the steering wheel, electric parking brake etc.

Please understand my disappointment when I realised that with all this high tech, the cruise control is not capable of holding the speed even on a moderate downhill. With the omnipresence of speed cameras these days, this is particularly significant shortcoming, in my opinion.

The Tiguan does have a lot of techno stuff in it ... however ... it is only an entry level Euro car and as such does not get all the goodies reserved for the more expensive models I'm afraid.

To get adaptive cruise on any Euro car would have cost you at least $20K more than the Tig and that is simply a sad fact of life.

By all means post any issue you have as I myself are not afraid to do so ... even though some here thinks the sun shines out of VW's proverbial ..... and I can assure it does not ... my Tig is my 7th VW so I am a fan, but not blind to its (or the brands) faults ....

[NZTiguan]

I am not a VW fan. I buy cars because I need them. When I make reference to Mazda cars that I owned in the past, it is not advertising for Mazda. Mazdas aren't perfect cars. The fact that I bought the Tiguan means that I considered it better than the Mazda offerings.

The Tiguan is my first european car. It has lots of high-tech stuff - parking assistance that turns the steering wheel, electric parking brake etc.

Please understand my disappointment when I realised that with all this high tech, the cruise control is not capable of holding the speed even on a moderate downhill. With the omnipresence of speed cameras these days, this is particularly significant shortcoming, in my opinion.

Joe

P.S. If you think that this is a forum for fans only, please let me know, because I have another 'issue' with the Tiguan I would like to discuss.

There's nothing wrong with discussing problems with the Tiguan or any other vehicle, as you say none of them are perfect BUT your suggestion that Mazda 3 and 6 series had an "adaptive" (down hill speed control by changing down) cruise control is (to the best of my personal knowledge) WRONG. So, your linking this to the fact that the Tiguan doesn't have one is not correct. That's all I was commenting on.

Cheers

[clip]

I buy cars because I need them.

Joe, that's probably the saddest thing I've heard in a long time. If you really are only after that, then I suggest (and seriously) that you look at the Korean alternatives. They are very good value for money, last for exactly five years without any problems at all, and are proving to have reasonable resale values (if they're under five years old).

[jfranek]

There's nothing wrong with discussing problems with the Tiguan or any other vehicle, as you say none of them are perfect BUT your suggestion that Mazda 3 and 6 series had an "adaptive" (down hill speed control by changing down) cruise control is (to the best of my personal knowledge) WRONG. So, your linking this to the fact that the Tiguan doesn't have one is not correct. That's all I was commenting on.

Cheers

Derek, I don't think I said that my Mazdas had 'adaptive' speed control. I think I said they downshifted going down the hill with cruise control on.

In the case of Tiguan with 6 speed auto this would not help. I tried what you suggested several posts back. Shifting even two speeds down doesn't slow the car.

Slowing the car down by breaking would not make it 'adaptive' control from the control engineering point of view. It would still be only a very basic speed control - trying to keep to the set-point.

I would think that adding the breaking feature to the Tiguan would only require some extra software. I would think that all the mechanical actuators are already there for the other safety systems - stability, ABS etc. But I may be wrong.

Joe