I’ve been considering installing a speed governor on my '98 Honda Civic. It doesn’t have cruise control, and I’d like to be able to put the hammer down on the highway and not have to check the speedometer constantly in order to stay out of trouble.
I’ve done some extensive searches, but I don’t find anything for sale that looks legitimate and is for sale to the general public rather than to fleet managers.
If there is an OBD plug tool that can be used to program the ECU for a top speed, which I’ve seen online but can’t find for sale, I’d like to try that, but I’d also consider a bolt-on unit if it’s less expensive or the OBD programming tool doesn’t work with my car.
To be clear, I’m not asking if this is a good idea, or whether you’d govern your car, I’m wondering if you know where I can find what I’m looking for and point me in the right direction.
I’m pretty sure that Waze can sound an alert when you exceed the speed limit. That would be a lot simpler than what you’re considering (plus it would let you exceed the speed limit if necessary to get out of an unsafe situation).
I don’t know what vehicle you have, but a few people I know have had factory cruise control added to their vehicles aftermarket that had option for it in the original vehicle. Thinking 3 to 5 hundred. It looked great!
To be clear, I’m not asking if this is a good idea, or whether you’d govern your car, I’m wondering if you know where I can find what I’m looking for and point me in the right direction.
A car starts to go out of control right in front of you with a ton of traffic behind. You see a hole, you accelerate through it exceeding your limiter. Accident averted, greater space is afforded those behind you to slow as they watch the crash happen. My wife actually did this so no “you are a race car driver, no normal person would do that” comments. It has happened to me too a couple of times, however.
Merging onto the highway when the only traffic merge spot is in front of you and not behind and the lane is disappearing.
You are driving through a cross intersection and see a red-light runner coming at you from your peripheral vision. Speedup and avoid, brake and crash.
You are passing on a 2 lane road - you are committed and in the oncoming lane and a car up ahead turns in your direction so you no longer have the safe clearance you thought. No opportunity to return to the rear and pop back in your lane because the line of cars behind the slow traffic closed the gap.
I like @lion9car’s suggestion - GPS warning alert.
C’mon man, you drive a 98 Civic on Florida highways that always have someone passing you at 90. No LEO is going to pull you over in that car. There are too many other tasty targets!
This is exactly the kind of debate I was trying to avoid. I thought I could ask a simple question and get a simple answer from someone who might be willing and able to help.
@It_s_Me has the only solution I can think of, given that you don’t seem to want to consider an aftermarket or retrofit cruise control. But I have no idea if the ‘set point’ can be adjusted down.
You hardly notice it, The company I work for has the speed limited in all the trucks.
You do have to change your driving style, you need to plan ahead for lane changes, like when your exit is coming up, catching up to a slower vehicle in your lane and traffic is going faster then you can.
You learn to just drive in the slow lane most of the time and deal with merging and exiting traffic.
Exactly! If installing a governor was unsafe, the trucking industry and fleet managers would not be using them. You just have to use your noggin when you drive.