I have not yet had my car in the mountains but I wanna know if it has any problems maintaining speed with the cruise control on. I know many automatics have to downshift when faced with huge hills. Any info would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

Never driven my Max in the mountains, but sometimes the cruise control seems kind of weird. On little hills it seems to accelerate than stop accelerating than accelerate than atop accelerating. It doesn't feel smooth then, so who knows what'll happen on mountains. But again, I've only noticed this a few times, so maybe it doesn't always do it, or maybe I'm just imagining things. I certainly don't know that it's even a problem, and as I said have never driven it in mountains. Anyone else had a jerky cruise control? I have a 5 speed, by the way.

 

DONT. You can strain your motor in being in a too high gear going uphill. Since you say manual, the car wont shift by themselves.

 

I just made a trip to Montreal from Boston with the car loaded(4 guys + luggage) and used the cruise control alot. I had no problems going up the mountains in New Hampshire and Vermont. The acceleration was nice and smooth and the speed never wavered. I was doing 80-85 the whole way.

'98 SE 5-Speed Sterling Mist

 

No problems with manual tranny. In fact, I find it quite capable on most hills. With the rare steep ones, I step out of 5th and go into 4th. But resuming afterward is just a click of a button. I would imagine the automatic wouldn't have problems either. It should be easier, actually. In the 5 speed, the clutch auto-disengages the cruise control (naturally!). This wouldn't happen with the automatic--you'd be in constant cruise.

~Gary