November 28, 2011
Does using Cruise Control on a long trip save a significant amount of gas?
Say a 300 mile trip. You will of course be more awake if you were driving and lets admit it, it gets kinda boring to use cruise control. So how much difference could cruise actually make in gas consumption. Thanks for the help.
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Filed under Gas Conservation FAQ by on Nov 28th, 2011. Comment. 
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Comments on Does using Cruise Control on a long trip save a significant amount of gas?
Yes, because the vehicle is going at a constant rate of speed.
steady even pedal adds a few miles per gallon/its the gas and go that effects the mileage
A lot. I can’t tell you the exact amount, but when you’re driving normally you are constantly pushing on the gas pedal and the RPM’s go higher than the cruise control maintains them at which means less gas into the engine. Cruise control is boring but will save you a pretty good amount of gas too.
In theory, the best mileage is with a constant gas flow, but that would mean you’d slow down going uphill and speed up going downhill, so that’s not very practical unless you’re the only car on the road. The next-best thing is to maintain a constant speed, which cruise control helps you do. So for practical purposes, cruise is best.
However, unless you’re really bad at maintaining a constant speed using your foot, you’re not likely to see any difference using cruise control.
On my car in during a 400 mile round trip that I take regularely I save approx. 4-6% fuel if I turn “ON” the cruise control.
NOTE – this trip is conducted on the Prairies and the road is table flat.
Using cruise control saves fuel, specially on trips such as this one.
Driving at constant speed uses less fuel than decelerating and then accelerating again. Cruise control maintains constant speed better than humans, and thus saves fuel.
The longer the trip – the greater the saving.