I know that for many the standard cruise control on the Niro is a mystery on how, why and if it works. I am not talking about the advanced models that have sensors and adaptive functions. This is the standard cruise control that I have in my 2018 Niro EX.
I did a rather long trip out from the GTA to Mount Tremblant in Quebec, so there were many hours of driving involved along both multi-lane highways and backroads with speeds ranging from 60-100km/h so I would say I averaged around the 86km/h for the 9-hour trip there but it was a bit faster for the return as there were fewer road accidents to navigate around.
What really bugs me about the NIRO is there is no indicator that says what you have set your cruise control to. You are really just guessing. On my older Ford cars, you could see on the display (cruise:###) showing what speed it was set for.
What I have found on the cruise for the Niro is that as it doesn't have a real set speed, it will change on you as you go. So I could be set the speed on a highway for 106km/h and for the most part it will keep to around that speed. it will slow down a bit going up an incline, and will for the most part break to keep itself around that speed going down the other side. I don't expect it to stay exactly on 106.
But you will inevitably get stuck behind another vehicle that is going slower than you. Worst is when you are behind a vehicle going slightly slower than you. You can then choose to either slow down to match their speed and hope they have cruise control that acts like yours or speed up to pass them. So you indicate out to the next lane and step on the accelerator. You speed up and pass them, then indicate and go back into your original lane. But now you are driving faster.
- If you just let your food off the accelerator, the CC will break, then you will be going too slow and the vehicle now behind you will get ticked off, but your Niro will then kick into rapid power acceleration to try and get back to the right speed.
- If you ease off the accelerator to try and get the car to about the right speed but in a more controlled manner, the car will still continue to slow down below the set cruise speed and then rev temporarily up to power then settle back to running in cruise. However, it will now be at the wrong speed. As you accelerated it will pick a speed generally 2-5km faster than what you had it set at before depending on how much you pressed on the accelerator to overtake the slower vehicle.
- If you tap the break to kick it out of cruise, then get your car around the correct speed and then click up + for resume, it will not resume cruise but 2km faster than before, so you need to then cick down - to take off that extra 2km you didn't want.
Likewise, if you hit traffic that results in you needing to break, it will get you out of cruise control so you can slow down. GREAT. But if you then choose resume, it will do the opposite to what happens with acceleration. You will resume with the engine racing well into the power zone, then settling in at a speed slower than before.
If you are in cruise and you are on a hill, then the engine will seem to want to stall swapping gears down till too late to keep momentum and force the engine to rev into power. After you get up the hill it will keep the engine in too low of a gear so it's revving far higher than needed and simply eating up fuel. So word of wisdom is don't use cruise on hills.
I did a rather long trip out from the GTA to Mount Tremblant in Quebec, so there were many hours of driving involved along both multi-lane highways and backroads with speeds ranging from 60-100km/h so I would say I averaged around the 86km/h for the 9-hour trip there but it was a bit faster for the return as there were fewer road accidents to navigate around.
What really bugs me about the NIRO is there is no indicator that says what you have set your cruise control to. You are really just guessing. On my older Ford cars, you could see on the display (cruise:###) showing what speed it was set for.
What I have found on the cruise for the Niro is that as it doesn't have a real set speed, it will change on you as you go. So I could be set the speed on a highway for 106km/h and for the most part it will keep to around that speed. it will slow down a bit going up an incline, and will for the most part break to keep itself around that speed going down the other side. I don't expect it to stay exactly on 106.
But you will inevitably get stuck behind another vehicle that is going slower than you. Worst is when you are behind a vehicle going slightly slower than you. You can then choose to either slow down to match their speed and hope they have cruise control that acts like yours or speed up to pass them. So you indicate out to the next lane and step on the accelerator. You speed up and pass them, then indicate and go back into your original lane. But now you are driving faster.
- If you just let your food off the accelerator, the CC will break, then you will be going too slow and the vehicle now behind you will get ticked off, but your Niro will then kick into rapid power acceleration to try and get back to the right speed.
- If you ease off the accelerator to try and get the car to about the right speed but in a more controlled manner, the car will still continue to slow down below the set cruise speed and then rev temporarily up to power then settle back to running in cruise. However, it will now be at the wrong speed. As you accelerated it will pick a speed generally 2-5km faster than what you had it set at before depending on how much you pressed on the accelerator to overtake the slower vehicle.
- If you tap the break to kick it out of cruise, then get your car around the correct speed and then click up + for resume, it will not resume cruise but 2km faster than before, so you need to then cick down - to take off that extra 2km you didn't want.
Likewise, if you hit traffic that results in you needing to break, it will get you out of cruise control so you can slow down. GREAT. But if you then choose resume, it will do the opposite to what happens with acceleration. You will resume with the engine racing well into the power zone, then settling in at a speed slower than before.
If you are in cruise and you are on a hill, then the engine will seem to want to stall swapping gears down till too late to keep momentum and force the engine to rev into power. After you get up the hill it will keep the engine in too low of a gear so it's revving far higher than needed and simply eating up fuel. So word of wisdom is don't use cruise on hills.