Cokeybill

I wonder how many people know about this ?

A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence! When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened, he told her something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON. She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain.

But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.

The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor - NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the pavement is dry.

The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe injuries.



NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on.

ChevyMgr

I state this at our New Owners Clinic every month. Good find Bill!

Cokeybill

Thanks, figured some could use this. I had some trouble once with my '06 HHR 2LT when going up a steep hill with the cruise on when it was raining. Luckily I touched the brakes real quick and the cruise disengaged before a large skid instead of a small slide.

GDZHHR

I have to remind my wife of this a lot.

ChevyMgr

The new vehicles with traction control will over come this. When the trac light comes on the cruise disengages, but you may already be in spin by that time.

afs9

When I got my S10 (1999), I read about this in the manual and have never used cruise control in the rain--granted it does not rain much here in SoCal, but this is when I was still living in NorCal where you need defrost in July. And the only time I really used CC was driving on the Grapevine (425 miles each way) every few months & it would occasionally rain. Good reminder.

That's pretty cool, Brad that you have a new owners clinic.

@

ChevyMgr

Informed customers make better customers.

urbexHHR

I have heard of that, and I know personally I don't set the cruise in the ice/snow or rain. You just don't have as much control of the car, and you can even feel that. Once it starts to slip you can let off quickly, but if cruise is on it takes much longer and it may be too late.

HHR_SS_QC

And you also have a better chance to keep them longer!

Dead customers don't buy cars..

ChevyMgr

We better lock this thread and hide it before our government finds out about this and bans cruise control from all vehicles. They know what we need and don't need.