(22-03-2016, 08:31 PM)doofer Wrote: Mine's never shifted down while cruising, and I don't think it's clever enough to downshift to engine-brake if it goes too fast. If you're going downhill in 6th gear then it will coast up to whatever speed it would do if you were driving manually in 6th - it doesn't care if you go over, although this almost never happens anyway. You don't get hills steep enough on the sort of roads where you'd normally be cruising.
Mine was a generic reply to cruise and I was referring to my Mercedes which is auto ( My Peugeot Partner is manual and doesn't have cruise) and it sounds like yours is a manual.
You also say you drive on less steep hills.
I regularly tow a heavy trailer from the south coast using M3 and A34 and there are a couple of hills such as Twyford down cutting where my car will go full throttle and downshift to maintain the set speed, then at the top, just as you start to pick up speed down the other side, it downshifts to hold the speed back so you don't get the run up for the next hill. It will then have to throttle up to maintain speed for the next hill. if I look at the MPG, it's truly bad.
If I drive it without CC, I take a bit of a run up and let the speed drop off so I crest the hill at about 50mph and then let the car gather momentum down the other side to get a run up for the next hill towards the A34 turnoff. The difference in mpg is clear if I compare the two.
By keeping a more even throttle and using the stored momentum of the downhill bits to help carry me up the uphill bits I get about a 5mpg overall saving on the full journey (only this much when towing)
If the car is not towing the difference is not so noticable.
With the Berlingo being lighter and more economical to start with, I would think the differences are even less tangiable.
Either way, cruise is a nice option to have