insterstate cruising

I was cruising up I-55 to Chicago. The sun was shining, the road was dry and traffic was light. I-55 has a bend in the road and a curve here and there, but it is as straight as a road can be without being perfectly straight. I thought to myself, "I wish I could just put the cruise on a hundred and be done with it." Reality reminded me rather quickly that my '94 Plymouth Voyager a) couldn't do a hundred, b) if it could, it wouldn't for very long, and c) it's handling is atrocious. Seventy five is about my limit. So, under similar circumstances and if speed limits weren't an issue, what would be the maximum setting on your cruise control if you were driving your everyday, let's-take-a-trip car?

On a clean, dry divided highway, my XC90 still gets reasonable mileage and is completely comfortable at 85 mph.

I've also driven a Chevette on the highway, and was pretty concerned once I got to 65.

Won't take my 75 Stingray over 75. Horribly light steering at speed.

I put the fortwo on cruise at 80 however!

My '89 Voyager saw "around" 100 many, many times. On the Italian Autostrade. Usually with high school buddies throwing down beers in the way-back (we always removed the middle bench seat).

Ah, those were the days.....but I digress.

If speed limits weren't an issue, I'd feel comfortable cruising close to 90 in our 4Runner. At 80 its solid as a rock and so silent inside, I am usually going faster than I should on road trips. We usually cruise under 80 due to Virginia reckless driving laws, even in 75mph zones.

Without the family aboard, I'd have no issue doing 110+ in the 4Runner though...assuming no traffic around.

In the WRX (which I actually do most of my road trips in if the fam isn't coming), I'd feel plenty comfortable with the cruise at 100.

e30 cruises fine at 75 with the tire trailer. I've never taken it much past 80-85 on its own, but would be fine with it well over 100. It has better suspension than our e30 lemons car that goes faster than that.

GT6. Anything over 60 starts to get a bit scary. Especially in traffic.

I daily an RX8 so economy is pretty close to the same at any speed. It feels comfortable at any reasonable speed. Have had it over 100 but highway cruise is usually close to 80.

My Miata cruises comfortably at 70-75 but without cruise-control it is a bit difficult to hold steady. Very stable at over 100 too.

My Opel GT has me reaching for the non-existent 5th gear (stock 4-speed) at over 60, fastest I've has it is 75.

The Transit Connect doesn't like much over 65. But I would have no problems with the Focus at 100. I have had the Focus up to 130 before the front end got light.

I have no problems at any reasonable speed. I would cruise through no man's land west texas in the triple digits often in the old Mazda 3. With the forester, I haven't really pushed it but I've had it over 100 a few times but I don't think I want to cruise at that speed for a long time.

My '04 Crown Vic LX sport feels really good at 90 MPH. Haven't been over it yet, only owned it for a few weeks.

120 is comfortable in the integra. Beyond that is a little puckery on a two lane road. I did a 225 mile 125 run in the turbo shadow (youth, indescretion, and a court-ordered "appointment." - not smart) no sweat. Mini-van, not so much. Not endorsing speeding or whatever. But yeah, I'd be totally comfortable setting the cruise at 100+ every day.

My RX-8 seems pretty comfy at any speed that i've dared to go, but my old E-150 is another story. It's been modified a decent amount so it can break 100, and in college I used to 'cruise' at 85 or so, but now i tend to cruise closer to 70-75. It's not particularly stable at any speed, but I would get around 8 mpg at 85, or 16 at 70.

If I had a 6speed it'd be 100 all day, I don't like to have it up that far in the revs though so 85 is a perfect cruising speed for me

1) Cruise Control sucks, I never use it. 2) 80mph is my over/under: minimum daylight speed/maximum night or bad weather speed.

I love turbo Volvos because they cruise at 110 so well.

Edit: I love my V1!

Both the E46 and the TSX feel fine at 90 and would probably do 100 all day. Fuel economy would take a hit. Even the 13-year-old Grand Caravan feels pretty darn good at 85, but I'm less confident in the emergency handling reserve it has at that speed.

Typically around 75 in the TDI. Being a proper German car, it's fine at much more, but mpg starts to drop. MPG is why I drive that car.

My GT6 is happiest around 60 or 65. Much above that and things get shaky. Keeping in mind I have no idea how old the tires are or how well balanced... After the 5 spd trans is installed, I'm hoping for a bit higher.

My '64 Mini is a surprising one. It'll cruise along happy as a clam screaming along at 80 mph - with plenty left in the pedal. It's kinda scary... it's also EFFING LOUD. When I took the car to Watkins Glen back in Sept, I drove a solid 70 miles on the hwy... my ears were ringing when I finally got down to slower roads. I wore ear plugs for the return trip.

Past fleet... my '91 Integra saw 100+ regularly. It was just how I drove it. Funny how that decorative spoiler on the back would actually start to work at those speeds and made the front end kinda light. When I put a bike rack on the roof with a wind deflector, the car actually became more stable at those speeds. My guess is the roof deflector reduced the amount of air hitting the rear spoiler.

The 90 conversion van... I liked keeping it at 65... much above that and mpg dropped fast. But on occasion, the venerable old 5.0 V8 could bury the 85 mph speedometer with little effort. On an open road... when the chances of an emergency maneuver were low.

Only had one long trip with my WRX, so far, but I imagine it would be fine at 100+.

With its predecessor, '03 MCS, I'd do 100, for brief periods. It's too rough for long periods, though.

Pop's Magnum R/T could easily pull 120 runs.

My old Ford E-150 couldn't do 100.

EDIT: Forgot about '60 Mini. With 4.11 gears, it screamed. I didn't take it on the highway much.

1996 Impala SS was fine at 125

2005 Grand Prix was fine up to 115 but had some vibrations at 120+

1986 Trans am was rock steady at an indicated 140

The E21's felt good above the 85 mph speedo range.

Don't speed kids.

The VW cruises nice at 75-80mph, which is also close to its top speed on flat ground.

The RX-7 cruises nice at 65ish, 75mph if it's hilly. Not enough load on the engine at 75mph to be pleasant on flat ground unless it's a 75mph average - accelerate up to meet traffic, slow down to drive with traffic, accelerate up again, etc. (It's an RPM vs. load thing - the engine is loaded more at 60-65mph so it's happy. At higher engine speeds it takes less torque to make enough horsepower and the engine gets all stuttery unless you can boot it and coast down)

Cruise control is anathema. I remove it from every car I get that has it.

Knurled wrote: Cruise control is anathema. I remove it from every car I get that has it.

Oh berk that... I would add cruise control to every car I own if I could/can. Me knees just don't "do" that anymore. I have to stop about every hour or I'll be limping for days.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: 1) Cruise Control sucks, I never use it.

I love my cruise.. I use it all the time.. down to 30mph depending on the road and the usual traffic enforcement.

What scares me is people going too fast for the road they are on. Rt 30, the White Horse Pike, into Atantic City is my way in to work. It is a bumpy road with one nasty curve. It is often heavily traveled and on the inside you have a jersey barrier only inches from the inside line.. on the outside you have a narrow shoulder with either water or marshes..

I will do 60 on it.. speed limit is 50.. and people fly by me like I am standing still. The accidents happen about once a day and they are usually quite extravigant ones that take out several cars

Reality reminded me rather quickly that my '94 Plymouth Voyager a) couldn't do a hundred, b) if it could, it wouldn't for very long,

If your 94 Plymouth Voyager won't do 100 there is either something wrong with it or you have the rare and somewhat desirable 100hp tbi/5spd model. My tbi van would only do 100 downhill, about 95 on flat ground.

On the other hand i have had a lot of experience with 2 94 chrysler vans, one a 3.8 donor for my 3.8 Dynasty, and the other a 3.8L that belongs to my cousin which i drive often. 100 is not much of a problem for these things. In fact, what i've noticed is 100 is right about where they start to have to 'try'.

If i was driving on a nice 3+ lane straightish highway with light traffic and wasnt concerned about fuel cost or tickets i would probably go about 90-100 in the Prius which is our main "go places together" car.

If its got the same 4 speed auto as the later ones, it definitely will do 100, comfortably. My mom had a 97 3.8 AWD Grand Caravan when I was learning to drive, that thing had a deep overdrive, I accidentally walked it up to ~90 when not paying enough attention more than once.

If you really threw it into a turn on a loose surface and punched the throttle, it would shift a lot of power rearward( I think that was a sprag AWD system) and kick the rear wayyyy out. The land yacht steering ratio made this maneuver a bit difficult.

My experience indicates most cars with a good alignment and enough power will cruise comfortably/safely up to about 90 or so, above that drag really starts sucking power and most crapcans start lifting the nose anyhow. My sunfire was reallllly bad at that, depending on the cross winds, max cruise where you weren't constantly making corrections to keep it in the lane was 65-90 (GPS verified).

Never had the Yugo north of 75, and that's in short bursts passing trucks, and I don't want to know. Max cruise is closer to 65.

The Malibu and cavalier I generally cruise at about 70, the mileage starts to drop after that. My escort I would generally run at about 80 but I was commuting late at night and didn't need to worry about traffic and police.

Admittedly stupid I ran a good stretch at 130 in my legacy gt. The front end got floaty over that.

My civic prefers 80 while the truck is limited to 90 and never feels uncomfortable at that speed until you remember that you are hurtling down the road in an 8000 pound vehicle.

140 and hope the Jackolopes are napping.

I drive my WRX at 85mph daily for 80 miles total there and back. I get rather bad MPG (like 22/23) but the car is comfortable. At 100 it would be well into the 4000s rpm but is comfortable and capable at that speed on a highway. Cruise control wont set over 90 and anything faster than 100 i refuse to do on a public road and only have done that because it's 95 north of Las Vegas at 10:30pm.

My 350z was similar except extremely uncomfortable. That car made my back feel like I was 60 years old.