Funnily enough, I had that exact conversation about auto gearboxes on Saturday. One of the people I mentioned is my girlfriend. She said she doesn't like driving the P38 as it's auto and she wants more control over the car. I pointed out that she had just as much control using the accelerator and brake pedals. If she wants to speed up, press the accelerator. If she wants to slow down, press the brake. If she wants to change down a gear and speed up more quickly, press the accelerator more.

She was having none of it and insists there's a lack of control driving an auto car.

GeorgeB wrote:

If you can find a cruise control system that will keep you rolling at 4kph, then that would be great for driving in this city. Me? I let the brake off.

Even on the highway it's difficult to maintain a constant speed due to big holes, stray buses and a myriad of other mobile/static (that should be mobile!) obstacles.

On top of that, I don't like it, never have done. Simple

Again, I'd say that's an issue of only using it in the correct conditions. City driving at slow speed with constant stopping and starting isn't cruising - why should cruise control work in this condition? To be pedantic, won't the autobox keep you rolling at very low speed on it's own, no cruise control needed?

Same with the road condition preventing its use. It's designed to be used in a certain set of circumstances. If you find yourself on a road to which it's not suited, it's not a fault of cruise control. Just because it doesn't work well for the conditions you're driving in (bad weather, poor road surfaces, city traffic etc) doesn't mean the system is "bad" or pointless.

My daily commute is 26 miles each way of smooth tarmac and light traffic. I set the cruise control once I reach the A47 and leave it to do it's thing - it's a godsend for me. I brake when I need to slow down for a change of speed limit or reach a roundabout etc. I don't leave the cruise control running and then blame it for being unsuitable when I crash in to the slower traffic.

What on earth have I just been readiing.

Cruise control is designed to keep you moving at a steady speed when you're driving a good distance.
I don't understand how anybody could not like it.. it's a good send!

I love CC. My partner refuses to use it. My latest toy has 'active cruise control '. Now that is fun. Slows you down when required and then speeds you up again.

OldShep56 wrote:

I love CC. My partner refuses to use it. My latest toy has 'active cruise control '. Now that is fun. Slows you down when required and then speeds you up again.

Now that would worry me, I like to control the brakes,,

By the time the next generation RR is released you'll be able to send it down to the offy for 20 Woodbines and a case of Stella all on its own, once it's over 18.
Shep- does your Adaptive Cruise have Queue Assist? This warning in the small print makes me smile:
The vehicle’s radar may not recognize a stationary vehicle as previously moving. In this case, it is possible that queue assist will not stop the vehicle behind the stationary vehicle.

I'd love to have a go in a Tesla and try their autopilot out. Personally, I can't wait for fully autonomous cars but I want the version that allows you to drive the fun bits and fall asleep on the motorway. Sadly it looks like the car industry wants to only produce autonomous vehicles without any controls at all :(

I'm a driver driver... I love the freedom to go where I like when I'm behind the wheel... I'll be a fan of self drive cars, besides which they will be costing me my job.

Aragorn wrote:

The climate control is interesting, i tend to turn Auto off in the A4, and direct the airflow at the windscreen and footwell vents. However in the A4, the automatic fan control part stays on even though you've turned "auto" off. So it'll still ramp the fan up as the engine reaches temperature, and shut it back once the cabin is warm enough. If you then adjust the fan speed, your adjustment is applied as an offset to the automatic speed.

I did the same thing on the P38 when i got it but havent paid too much attention to how its operating.

RTFM, if it is in AUTO and you change where the air is being sent or the fan speed, it is still in Semi-Auto mode, so will adjust the temperature but leave the things you've set manually as they are. Personally, I just leave it in AUTO all the time and let it adjust the airflow to where it thinks it is needed, the fan speeds to what it thinks are needed (I like the way that the solar sensor causes the fans to speed up when the sun hits it and slow down when in shade) and keep the temperature at what I've set.

As for cruise, it's not so much a feeling that I want to be in control as a feeling that I don't want to feel out of control which I do if all I'm doing is pointing the car in the right direction. Although some would argue that it's better for fuel consumption I'd argue against that when it tries to maintain speed on a steep uphill. I tried it once on a Crysler Grand Voyager while driving through Switzerland, I saw 8mpg on the instantaneous readout when it was trying to maintain speed up a hill that it wasn't possible to maintain speed on as it didn't have the grunt to do it.

yeh i had a play with the car yesterday and noticed the Auto worked the same way as the A4. I pressed auto and then pressed Airconditioning Off (the compressor is leaking). The Auto light went out, but i noticed the fan "bar" was still missing. The fan did seem a bit annoying though, blowing a bit too hard for no reason. I ended up manually turning it down a bit. I suspect i might have had the temperature set to an impossible value, IE set to 18c when it was 20c outside or whatever.

I think theres some argument for less control in an Automatic car due to the lack of engine braking. When you lift in a manual car, you get immediate retardation of speed, which makes it feel like you've not only stopped accellerating but have actually started slowing down. The Auto doesnt seem to do that as much, as soon as you lift it drops out the lockup clutch on the converter and the engine drops to idle meaning you lose almost all engine braking.

I've always had manuals, and was REALLY against automatic boxes as i wanted the control. When i replaced my old trooper with the Range Rover, i resigned myself to the autobox and figured it wasnt a daily driven car, and so wouldnt bother me too much. It then sat for months broken and i never used it. However in the mean time i got the electric car, which obviously has no transmission, i started using that daily and quickly realised that infact, for the daily commute, there was nothing wrong with it, and i quite enjoyed not having clutch leg ache in traffic. Thus once the range rover was finally pressed into use, it felt pretty "normal". That said, the EV has fairly strong regenerative braking which comes in when you lift off the throttle, so the engine braking issue isnt realised in that car. I guess fundamentally its just different and people dont like change.

The primary thing with the range rovers auto that annoys me, is the inability to manually downshift before a manoever. EG if i want to overtake, you end up mashing the foot down and theres a significant delay while everything winds itself up and gets into the proper gear. Whereas newer "tiptronic" autos allow you to flick the box down into the correct gear before you start the overtake. It also seems to occasionally down shift too far. So it'll jam itself into 2nd at 5500rpm, and then immediately upshift into 3rd, whereas with a manual, you'd just have selected 3rd to start with.

As for the cruise control, i dont find any feelings of out of control. I'm still driving exactly as normal, my brains processing the same things and performing the same actions, the only difference is i'm not having to hold my foot wedged on the throttle in the same position for ages. End of the day 99% of driving is observations and planning. The physical controls are almost subconcious anyway

The lockup clutch will only drop out if you are travelling slowly, once you are at a reasonable speed, it stays engaged. To give you further engine braking, the fuel injectors are switch off on a closed throttle above a certain set rev limit, so the engine isn't even firing to give you more engine braking. Even on LPG, as it slaves off the petrol injectors, if they are off, so are the LPG injectors.

For a quick overtake, I just poke the Sport button when getting ready and then floor it. Not only does it hold the revs in each gear longer but it seems to make it kickdown that much quicker.

Gilbertd wrote:

For a quick overtake, I just poke the Sport button when getting ready and then floor it. Not only does it hold the revs in each gear longer but it seems to make it kickdown that much quicker.

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Now what would be nice would be having the sport button on the stalk, or even on the gear knob. Always takes me an appreciable amount of time to get my finger on it where it is.

I do like that little sport button. It surprises a few people when they they're being overtaken up a hill by a P38 Range Rover.

i tend to drive in Sport all the time, it just seems too sluggish in normal mode, upshifts far too early and the engine sounds kinda horrible as its always sitting around 2000rpm where the converter stalls, you dont get the nice sound of it working up thru the revs, just this sorta annoying drone.

The only time i switch it off is when on the motorway, as it can sometimes be a bit too eager to downshift when you reach a hill or something.

I find mine switches between 4th and 3rd pretty readily but takes a while to get its shit together to change down to 2nd when I select them manually.

I don't really think of the P38 as a "drivers car". They're more for wafting along in effortless comfort. As an added bonus they'll do pretty much anything you ask of them but like a very expensive swiss army knife, they're not really about being a knife anymore.

It's kind of not a "driver's car" but at the same time rather like the CX it's good fun to come howling out of a roundabout pulling away from something expensive, fast and German at a speed they can't even get close to with the tyres folded underneath and one tail light eighteen inches higher than the other ;-)

RutlandRover wrote:

Again, I'd say that's an issue of only using it in the correct conditions. City driving at slow speed with constant stopping and starting isn't cruising - why should cruise control work in this condition? To be pedantic, won't the autobox keep you rolling at very low speed on it's own, no cruise control needed?

Same with the road condition preventing its use. It's designed to be used in a certain set of circumstances. If you find yourself on a road to which it's not suited, it's not a fault of cruise control. Just because it doesn't work well for the conditions you're driving in (bad weather, poor road surfaces, city traffic etc) doesn't mean the system is "bad" or pointless.

To your first point, I wrote that I just release the brakes.

On your second, I don’t believe I said it’s the CC’s ‘fault’ or it's ‘bad’ or even ‘pointless’

All I was doing was pointing out horses for courses and that CC really isn’t suited to roads here – because of the roads, not the CC!

My main issue is that I just don’t like it. End of.

RutlandRover wrote:

I do like that little sport button. It surprises a few people when they they're being overtaken up a hill by a P38 Range Rover.

I’m 100% with you here though! :-)

Ah, oops. I did miss the bit about taking the brake off and rolling with the autobox and I guess I took a meaning that wasn't there from the rest. Sorry!

RutlandRover wrote:

Ah, oops. I did miss the bit about taking the brake off and rolling with the autobox and I guess I took a meaning that wasn't there from the rest. Sorry!

No apology needed whatsoever. It's the problem with the online world.

If we were having a beer face to face, there'd never have been a misunderstanding anyway!

I'm having one now though 😊

A beer that is, not a misunderstanding!