Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
About Adaptive Cruise Control - 2014 Kia Cadenza Limited Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
About Adaptive Cruise Control - 2014 Kia Cadenza Limited Long-Term Road Test
The Kia Cadenza is available with adaptive cruise control, a feature trickling down to cheaper, non-luxury-brand vehicles. It can be useful, but not all are created equal.
Tagged:
0
Comments
That's ashame, I'm really looking forward to having these new automated technologies but it sounds like they are still in the early stages. We really need to get to a point where you can get on the highway, activate the system and go on a long trip in moderate traffic without concern.
I have a 2013 Taurus with ACC. The system works well, but does slow down on its own (when approaching other cars) kinda soon if you aren't paying attention. If you put slight pressure on the accelerator pedal, it disables ACC, which allows you to creep closer to the car in front of you than the system wants.
My main gripe with the Ford system is that it won't bring the car to a full stop. It disengages below 25MPH, per design. But to me, it is SO much better to have ACC than a normal cruise control system. Hitting CANCEL/RESUME so frequently on a normal system gets old, fast. ACC is particularly nice when the highway is full of cars, and you can't just set a speed and forget it. Ford's ACC handles those speed fluctuations very well.
Off topic, but spinning 2,300 RPM @ 79 MPH is impressive in my opinion. As for ACC, I've never used it. I think it's cool technology but I'm not sure if I would be comfortable relying on it for my safety.
Does the Cadenza's ACC have a setting for how far away it will keep from the car ahead? My 2006 Acura RL can choose between three distance levels for the ACC.
i have a 2013 chrysler 300, my first car with ACC. i live in South Florida where bad driving (slowing in the left lane, aggressive/inconsiderate driving, lost tourists) is prevalent.
at first, i hated ACC and didnt use it at all. i especially didnt like that it is undefeatable. but after some acclimating, it has proven useful for cruising with the wife or mom/mom-in-law, if youre like me and have to fight your aggressive driving tendencies and not give anyone in the car a heart attack on the way to dinner (or get yourself a ticket). the Chrysler system is fairly smooth in accelerating and has 1-3 car length adjustability. i find deceleration can be a little more abrupt if the car in front of you is slowing rapidly, but a tap of the gas stops the system instantly and temporarily and resumes once you let go. unfortunately, the system completely disengages as soon as the cars slows below 20mph, so the car will not come to a complete stop like the Kia. strangely for a car of its size, there is only one radar detector in front of the car and it is not centrally installed; instead it sits almost in front of the passenger seat below the front bumper, so the system displays different tendencies when switching lanes to the left as opposed the right - only a slight annoyance for the highly observant.
it is worth noting that spring and summer here can bring heavy rains frequently and i have found ACC to be very useful for driving in inclement weather where i would normally tire of modulating the gas and brake to maintain a safe distance while keeping a moderate pace. i set the space to 3 lengths and use the steering wheel-mounted accelerate and decelerate buttons instead and it works extremely well even in extreme rain where you might assume the radar would be confused by the precipitation.
sorry for the long post, but its an interesting topic to me!
Undefeatable adaptive cruise is a deal breaker for me. Define "driving too slow", and do you even have a right to say that?. There is no alternate road from SoCal to Utah, so if the terrain is such that a vehicle struggles, it will be going slowly. Tough. The left lane habit on I-15 to Vegas is caused by car drivers not wishing to drive in the truck damaged right lane. There is no question that the ride is smoother on the left, but it is a poor excuse for left lane hogging. Mind you, even the shoulder of I-15 is a feather bed compared to the concrete jointed horror of I-10 East of Riverside (shudder).
Impeding the flow of traffic, defined in laymen's terms as:
-Driving at an unreasonably slow speed, unless you cannot safely go faster, or on a grade.
-Occupying the leftmost/passing lane with traffic behind you and space to get back into the right lane.
-Spending unreasonable time passing another vehicle and blocking all lanes. i.e. running side by side.
-When a jurisdiction has found that slow speeds can routinely cause accidents or traffic backups, and posts a minimum speed limit. i.e. Minimum posted speeds, usually ~45mph, on some highways.
I completely agree with what you're saying here. If someone isn't breaking the law, at which point it is a police officer's job to decide if they're driving too slow, nobody has the right to declare others as too slow to be on the road. It is, after all, a PUBLIC road, and is as such filled with many different vehicles of many different capacities, driven by many different people of many different capabilities. I really wish we could see less of this "king of the road" complex. Just so we're clear, I'm not condoning and defending people breaking the above law, or poor driving habits regardless of wether they're legal or not, but standing up against "this is my road" behavior. If someone's driving isn't conducive to your driving style or time frame, leave earlier, and think about modifying your driving behavior, not theirs.
how does the new sonata cruise compare?
@quadricycle. Thank you, and I have read or heard most of what you wrote before. I was after the Riswick definition.