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<p>Thumper, how is it not their fault? One of two things happened: they parked an economy car in the range of spots that was supposed to be for compacts, or else they steered me to the economy range of spots instead of the compact range.</p>
<p>Also, if you are getting better gas mileage than your H, possibly you drive a bit slower. If you test your own driving over distance with and without cruise, you likely will find your mileage is improved.</p>
<p>Intparent…my husband agrees with me. He is an engineer. I am simply a consistent speed driver. And believe me, I do NOT poke along.</p>
<p>When I rent a car, I go through it before I leave the rental facility. If there is a mistake, it is fixed immediately…not after the fact. </p>
<p>It is very possible that your economy car GETS better mileage than the compact would have.</p>
<p>If you have the receipts, contact the rental car company. They might be able to credit your account the difference between the economy car you took, and the compact you were supposed to take.</p>
<p>The only cruise control drivers I see are those going such a steady rate in the left lane regardless of traffic that it can ONLY be cc. They sit there going exactly 60 mph and won’t move over. For anything. </p>
<p>The traffic here is pretty heavy most of the time. I don’t see that cc would be that useful. In any case, our car is a hybrid, and at steady speeds it switches to electric and we do fine. It’s really not rocket science to keep a steady speed with your foot. Cruise control seems to be for lazy drivers or those trying to prove a point about not speeding.</p>
<p>Sometimes the price difference between those car classes is minuscule or nonexistent. And if there is a price difference and if they offer to credit you, don’t be surprised if they try to credit something towards a future rental.</p>
<p>We live on the outskirts of LA traffic and it is usually difficult to use cruise control because of frequent slow-downs. Even when we travel several hours south, we hit traffic thru Los Angeles and also the next county down so don’t use it. Otherwise, my H uses it all the time. I don’t like it- on long trips I feel like I pay more attention when I am in control of the speed. I do drive at a very consistent speed. One thing I have noticed when using CC in different cars is that when going up and down hills, it is NOT consistent. Going up, it will lag for a while and then surge to catch up. Drives me crazy!</p>
<p>As far as the type of car you got, I would call to try to get a refund. Sounds like they made a mistake!</p>
<p>Out here in fly over country, cruise control is great. It is not just for lazy drivers. We have a stretch of I-88 near us that is heavily patrolled. It is out in the middle of nowhere. I always set my cruise for 68 and feel very comfortable passing the troopers. It is very easy to creep up on speed when there isn’t much traffic. As to the OP, see if they will credit you the difference, otherwise take it as a reminder to check next time.</p>
<p>I’m with oldfort. I don’t see the big deal either about not having cruise control, and I can’t see getting upset over not having it in a rental car.</p>
<p>No one in my family uses cruise control. We think it is not safe to use it. But we almost never drive a long distance. After we moved to Texas, we have never driven out of this state. We choose to fly if the distance is over a couple of hundreds miles.</p>
<p>We are not fast drivers, never over-speed. (Never got a traffic violation ticket in my whole life.) If there is any problem, it is that we may accidentally drive too slowly. No problem when we lived in a smaller city, but it becomes more troublesome after we moved to a larger city where there are more fast and aggressive drivers.</p>
<p>When the speed limit was changed from 55 to 65, it took us some time to get used to the higher speed. We usually drive 5 miles per hour below the speed limit. I really miss those days when the speed limit was 55.</p>
<p>We would never drive on the left lane on a freeway or expressway (or even local roads with multiple lanes) because we know we are slow drivers. We joke to ourselves that when we drive, it is always that other cars pass us and we will never pass any other car unless the other driver is very old (who tends to drive a very large American car for its “better protection” should there be an accident, I think.)</p>
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<p>I always walk around and check for any dings and report them, make sure I know how to use the lights, wipers, heat/ac, and radio before driving away. Honestly, it did not occur to me to look for cruise, it is usually obvious how to use it when you need it. Guess I will be adding that to my checklist going forward.</p>
<p>Takeitallin, I was in southern California for the long weekend. I agree that right around LA you wouldn’t use it often, too much traffic. But we went up toward San Simeon, and drove back on Saturday am. Would have had quite a bit of use for it if the car had it, we had long stretches of highway driving with some (but not heavy) traffic. Complete aside about LA traffic, but those lane-splitting motorcycles scare me every time they whiz by… CA is the only state that allows this, and I think it is terrifying going full speed in the car pool lane when one flies by. Nothing to do with cruise, just an observation.</p>
<p>I suspect the price differential is going to be minimal, so I am not going to contact the company. But I made a note on my list of “companies to not frequent” in my iTouch not to rent from these guys again. There are plenty of other choices.</p>
<p>DS just rented a Ford Focus for a whole month from Enterprise (it is a long story why he rented it for such a long time. We really need to get our act together and get him a car) and will return the car tomorrow. He said he likes it. I think he would not use the cruise control, just like me. Behavior inheritance, I think.</p>
<p>He rented a Zipcar occasionally. It appears to me that most Zipcars are small cars.</p>
<p>(Romani, One of our cars we bought was from a rental car company as well. We are pleased with the purchase. It appears to me that it is not easy to buy a used car from a private owner anymore, unlike in the days when I was young, which is 30 years ago.)</p>
<p>Same here re: buying a former rental. Good car. Also was surprised we liked the Focus.</p>
<p>Thing is, whether or not we want cc or ever use it, intparent wanted it.</p>
<p>Radio? If I discovered that wasn’t in my cheapo rental, I’d definitely turn back.</p>
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<p>AMEN! I cannot stand to be behind an erratic driver who can’t decide between 65mph or 75mph and is constantly accelerating and decelerating. I use cruise control a lot and would never consider purchasing a car that didn’t have it. I, too, would be irritated if I rented a car only to find out later it didn’t have cruise control, especially if I had highway driving ahead of me. The only time I don’t use cruise when I’m driving on the highway or interstate is when it’s raining.</p>
<p>Into aren’t- I don’t think anyone here likes the motorcycles that split lanes either! You do get used to it, and surprisingly, they rarely get hit. Most of them are careful but I do see some cutting in and out at high speeds while the rest of traffic is slow- crazy! </p>
<p>You are right that as you go north it is easier to use CC. I will have to check cars for it in the future as my H does use it. Thanks for mentioning it!</p>