I hear a lot of things discussed here, but hardly ever does anyone mention the cruise control. I expect that very few people like to use it, but I am interested in the opinion of those who do. My experience with cruise control in stick shift cars is a little limited. My Land Rover has a stick and a bizarre pneumatic cruise control that uses vacuum hoses to run. With the addition of a clutch pedal to the mix, it gets complicated - but works like a dream (after an occaisional hose trimming each year). My VW Passat, with an automatic transmission and expensive computerized 4Motion system has an electronic system that sucks bigtime - I have to keep it turned off or it drives you crazy with its antics.

I assume the Mini system is electronic with servos - does it work inobtrusively with the stick? Does it seek the same speed in any gear like it should?

I just returned from a 500 mile trip in my new MINI. The CC is fine, it works in all the gears I assume. I only used it in 4-6th. I do believe it is electronic. The gas pedal does not go up and down like in my F-150. I does a preatty good job of maintaining speed. I give it a thumbs up.

--->JoeDentist: Since you have an '05 (and subsequently V38 or sooner), your cruise control is quite good. The MINI's Cruise is integrated with the e-gas, no funky pneumatics or bolted-on electronics to muss up reliability.

Motor-On,
Ryan

I'm only asking because the first thing I have to do with my Mini is drive about 500 miles back to my home.



Are you saying that the pre-V38 had problems?

Not "problems" per se, more bad software calibration. The controls were slow to respond and it would deviate from the set speed on even a slight incline. V38 is dramatically improved - acceptable, not abyssmal. All in all, nothing you need to worry about with yours.

I very much enjoy using my Cruise control now; it's nice and effective

Don't forget to alter your RPMs during the break-in period. I wouldn't keep the cruise on for any great length of time.

Lots of people complain about theirs, but mine's great. Guess I got lucky in that respect.

my 2 bits for a june 2002 build MCS:not only does the set speed vary +/_ 5 mph,but when I attempt to"bump" the speed up or down,it most often ignores the command.I use my cruise most of the time to keep me legal. For a long time the car was not cabable of doing less than 90 MPH,and I was seriously thinking of taking it back to the dealer to complain ,but a run in with the mass. state police gave me a timely wake up call in which the officer in question told me he had flagged my license # and if I got stopped again for speeding he would come to my house and arrest me for the "driving to endanger" he said I was guilty of.(true!).So I use the cruise, set to a conservative 5 over , but I am quite disatisfied with the system as a whole .( I got a flash a while back to v37 ,but still have the cold start and erratic throttle for the first few minutes in the AM, I'm looking at Bisch's thread very hard). Jock

My 5-speeds cruise control works fine. I can't believe it isn't standard on the base MINI.
It does make sense that the cruise on an automatic could maintain speed more effectively, especially if there are hills, since the auto can downshift and the manual can't. Still, mine works very well and I certainly wouldn't want to not have the option of using cruise on long trips.


R.E.

Well, there is an art to using cruise control in a stick shift car. The "resume" function is very important, because it cuts the cruise control when you depress the clutch. If you are approaching a hill, you have to downshift and hit "resume" to get back to speed. After a while is an automatic thing for you to do, but it is not as nice as an automatic.

I love mine, it works great. It's the first car I've experienced where the cruise control holds a set speed, no matter how fast it is. I had the cruise control on and going 110mph on the 210 freeway one very early sunday morning for a good minute and a half I held that speed and the cruise worked flawlessly. I also particularly like the fact that it'll accelerate when going up a hill and then decelerate when coming down to hold the set speed instead of just slowing down going up and coasting coming down.

Cruise Control worked great for me on my 1600mi. maiden voyage home from an out of state dealer. You can use the +/- buttons to vary RPM and give your right foot a rest.

uhhh, where do you drive where you need to downshift on the highway to maintain speed? Perhaps I'm too used to my Tuned MCS.

holdenontoit,
As Ryephile said, the cruise on my 02 was the pits until I got Version 38. It is now a joy to use, a real bonus on top of the yo-yo fix! I highly recommend it.

The cruise control works waaaaayyyyyyy better in my '02 Cooper CVT than in my '04 MCS. Difference is like night and day. The CVT does not lose speed at all and works great with the CVT transmission. In the MCS is another story. My MCS is still running version 36 of the ECU software.

Ryephile


I suppose you live where there are no "runaway truck traps" either! The mountains of western Virginia can be really steep, even on 4 lane highways. Sixth gear is for flat roads - not up mountains. Where do you live, Kansas or something? When I lived in Kentucky, the roads were sometimes so steep they had to close them when they got wet. Up near Staunton, Virginia its so foggy they have landing lights embedded in to pavement so you don't drive off a cliff in the fog.

Joe,
I just did a long trip with my car after delivery and I was told by lots of people NOT to use the cruise at all b/c of break in. What I was told to do was to vary the speed and the RPMs as much as possible, prevents the cylinders from glazing over and allowing the rings to set properly. Basically what was recommended and what I did was annoying so hopefully it works. At highway speed accelerate (not pedal to the floor) to 4500 RPM in 4th the shift to 5th acccelerate not pedal to the floor (until speed Rpm you feel ok with) then do the same for 6th. Then shift down to 4th (around 70MPH) and do it again. Never keeping the same RPM or Speed for an extended period of time. What this does is changes the LOAD on the motor that is very important to break in, cruise will not allow this to the extent required. More combustion at almost open throttle and less at little throttle and the variation helps seat the rings properly. This method was explained to me by my MA, the tech at MINI and my dad who during his spare time builds race engines.... so I took it to be an honest to good thing. I did try the cruise when I test drove and it was very well mannered. I also have had a Land Rover Disco which would surge and buck like crazy, and traded my V6 passat 4MO for the MINI, the cruise on that was very very particular but did work well on the highway, with the passat it was more engine/tranny lag than anything, the 4mo is the same as the Audi Quattro system; there is no electonics for the 4mo just a torsen differential shifts to axle and individual wheel( the transversely mounted tt uses a haldex electonic clutch, as does volvo and shifts between axels). On my A4 5manual the cruise is great, so it is definately a tranny engine thing on the passat. The MINI MCS is my first non-vw audi all wheel drive car and it is great thus far!

Agree with ryephile, I used to use the "right foot" cruise control option because the integrated cruise was so bad on V36. Now that I'm on V38, tho, the cruise is nice and tight. +/- 1MPH normally. Worst case I've seen yet was -2MPH on steep hill going 80MPH running A/C maxed out... Even then, the car corrected quickly. The only car I've driven that was tighter was my 2002 Vette- but that had gobs of torque

Joe Dentist, just an observation... 6th gear in the MCS IS NOT AN OVERDRIVE GEAR. In fact the MCS has no overdrive gearing whatsoever.

On the other hand, 5th gear in the standard MC model is actually an overdrive gear.

can you explain the difference?

thanks,
Patrick

I think the cruise works fairly well overall. It holds speed perfectly on flat Hwys; but inclines are corrected for a bit slowly. It takes a mile or two to get back to speed after encountering a slight grade (say one that takes you from 70 to 65).

I find the opposite. If the cruise has been on for 40-50 miles (lots of long, boring drives in southern Nevada) I find that the speed usually creeps up a few MPH. Other than that, it's fine.

My 2003 MCS with v36 stinks. It drifts +/- 5 mph consistently since new on flat highways and on other roads. I am going to get v38 soon to diminish the yo-yo and correct the cruise control (hopefully). Sometimes the cruise control is rewarding on long trips, but not as it is operating currently. Looking forward to the change.

I'm very happy with my cruise control and I consider it an absolute necessity on long drives (e.g. interstate). I also find mine to be very steady at all speeds between 4th and 5th gear (when I use them). If I tap the (-) button the speed decreases by approximately 1/2 mph.

I have a 2002 MC.