When traveling from home (Longmont, Colorado) to Estes Park, I have noticed that the cruise control on all of my vehicles (Ford Excursion, Ford Ranger and Chevy Uplander) all do pretty good at keeping the speed uphill but dangerously poor going down steep grades. Is this true for all vehicles?
Some vehicles have the ability to operate the cruise control going downhill. These vehicles are equipped with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and have the ability to brake during operation. The vast majority do not. I would never operate the cruise control in mountainous areas anyway especially going downhill. I know that stretch of highway coming down from Estes Park and all my attention is on keeping the vehicle slowed down.
I agree. It’s a matter of knowing how it functions. Mine, as most do, raise and lower the speed by about 1 mph for each tap you give it, up or down on the stalk. I find that helpful going up and down hills in keeping everything under control.
I rarely drive on mountains, but on the rare occasions that I do disabling Overdrive seems to improve speed control on descents.
As far as I know, only a handful of luxury cars can have the brakes activated by the cruise control.
The cruise control on my 2005 Dodge Stratus (and on the 2002 Caravan I used to have) doesn’t activate the brakes, but it will downshift the transmission to try to maintain the set speed when going downhill.