[jblackburn]

People that drive like that have **** for brains and were probably dropped on their head as a child. I hope he lost his license and his stupid truck.


Sent from Bill the WonderPhone

 

[jblackburn]

Well guess what.. same hill as I originally posted.. but this time it was a lexus SUV.. except I was ahead of them and at the top of the hill they decided to cut into oncoming traffic again.. (This time I was not trying to keep distance.. I let them go). No cops this time but the lady did fly over the hill and almost slam into the back of a tractor trailer. I guess she didn't remember that when you drive 90 on a hill to try and look cool that there are 50,000lb trucks that also drive up the hill at 15mph.. Was some funny crap.. made my day.

I don't know what it is about that hill but makes people DERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I have never met a Lexus driver with any shred of intelligence in their entire being.

 

[jblackburn]

I had CC in my 1999 5 speed manual Commodore with the 3800 engine and I haven't found an auto that even comes close to being as good, including my Cruze diesel. That doesn't mean the Cruze is bad, just that the Commodore was better.

My automatic Volvo's worked great, but it had a ton of torque to maintain speed on hills. I never saw it drop a gear on cruise control to climb a hill, and it would downshift a gear to maintain speed if you were on a sharp decline and it rose 5 mph above your set speed.

1987 Buick Century would SMASH the gas pedal to the floor, drop 2 gears, and take off like a rocketship if you tried to increase the set speed via the stick, or resumed from a lower speed. Kinda hilarious.

1988 Accord was a manual, and mother's 2007 Accord is also a manual, and above 60 mph in 5th gear, they are quite happy on the highway and don't need to be downshifted for hills.

1998 Ford's would lug the engine as low as possible, drop 5-8 MPH below the set speed, before finally downshifting to get up a hill we commonly took it up.

Toyota has some of the worst cruise control systems I've ever driven with. Our I4 Camry will drop a gear for the SLIGHTEST rise in the road (like, seriously, a freaking bridge to go over a stream - if you were on foot, you would barely notice the hill), and 2 gears for a moderately-sized hill. It jerks the car and drones on at 3000-3500 RPM every time it downshifts hard like that, and I can maintain speed by myself with the gas pedal without coming out of 6th gear. A Highlander with the quite powerful V6 also panics if it loses 1-2 MPH before engaging cruise control, surges, and then goes OVER the set speed. Insanely dumb system for cars that are otherwise fairly well engineered - I just avoid it entirely, which makes it tiring to drive on long highway trips.

The Cruze's, coupled with the amazing little 1.4T, is the best one I've ever driven. It'll maintain speed on any hill thrown at it around these parts at highway speeds without ever downshifting, and it anticipates upcoming hills and re-engages the throttle as the car starts to slow down in a valley. Very smart.

 

[jblackburn]

Actually, on that note of hill-climbing ability

Great article, a turbo diesel vs. a gas hybrid:
Mercedes-Benz E250 Bluetec vs Toyota Prius MPG Battle - Road & Track