Not Your Average Cruise Control - 2016 Honda Civic Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
Not Your Average Cruise Control - 2016 Honda Civic Long-Term Road Test
Are the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel of the 2016 Honda Civic any better than the convoluted radio controls?
Tagged:
0
Comments
Generally, it works just as expected. You turn it on and set the following interval between you and the car ahead of you (short, middle, long and extra long). That gives a range of 83 feet (short) and 204 feet (extra long) at 50 mph. The distances decrease as speeds fall and increase as speeds get higher. I’ve tended to use short, as it provides a comfortable distance between you and the car ahead, and doesn’t leave a huge gap that just invites other drivers to change lanes into it.
SET, RESUME and CANCEL work exactly the same as a conventional cruise control. And as expected, the vehicle will have a maximum speed of the set speed and will slow down as the followed vehicle slows down and will speed up as it speeds up, up to the set speed. I don’t believe that I’ve ever let the cruise slow down the car when it gets below about 20 mph… I usually disengage the system with the brakes at that point (force of habit from years of using a conventional cruise). So I've never let ACC bring the car to a full stop. As I understand it, if you let the cruise reduce your speed up to the point where the followed vehicle stops, the cruise will bring the car to a full stop. When the followed vehicle begins to move again, provided that you’ve deferred braking control to the ACC (therefore leaving it engaged… of course, touching the brake pedal will cancel it), you can resume your previously set speed by touching the accelerator, SET or RESUME.
It’s all worked pretty well in my experience. Just a couple of things… first, the initial acceleration back to speed after the system has slowed the car can be a bit more leisurely than I’d like. Second is my biggest peeve… when the followed car pulls into a right turn lane on a two lane highway and slows to make the turn, the ACC will often brake as if the vehicle is still in your path as you pass it. Since you're still at highway speed and the turning car slows down significantly, the braking is pretty hard and abrupt. When that happens, I just disengage and resume after passing.
Finally, you can switch from ACC to conventional cruise if the situation calls for it.
Overall, I’m satisfied with it… other than that last peeve that I listed, it works as expected.