As I mentioned the other week, I have now had my cruise control fitted and I can report that it is utterly fabulous. It is the Gold Cruise GC90 with the GC4 stalk that incorporates 2 preset speeds (user configurable). It was fitted by a firm in Birmingham called Conrad-Anderson, who have to be the most customer friendly bunch of folks I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. http://www.conrad-anderson.co.uk/products/view/cc172055253)
The technical chap (Andy) talked to me about where to place the stalk, what he had to do and how he planned to do it. The stalk looks OEM as far as I am concerned and you'd not know that it wasn't a Fiat option from the factory. I has all the usual features - On, Set, Cancel, Resume - plus the 2 presents that I have configured for 72mph and 52mph (true GPS), so I have easy access to these speeds as required.
It is off by default and needs to be switched on each journey - a push away. Speed is set with a push Up, cancelled with a Pull and resumed with a push Down. The presets are on a small rocker switch on the end of the control stalk.
I drove up to Birmingham late at night and found that even with careful concentration it was easy for the speed to fluctuate quite a bit. I put this down to small engine, small turbo and at 80mph indicated, quite a bit of boost I suspect. Lift off a little to control any increase in speed and boost drops off more than expected, resulting in dropping off of more speed than I expected. So back on the throttle a little until I'm back to where I want to be. And repeat a mile or so later....
.... driving back however on Cruise and the speed is absolutely stuck rigid at whatever speed I set. Really relaxing and in my 260 motorway miles so far, I reckon about 10% better on fuel as a result. I came back at a true 75mph or thereabouts and saw 45mph average (only 8000 miles on the engine, so still 'running in'!), which is a good 4 or 5mpg more than I got on the way there.
But I didn't buy it to save fuel, I just wanted the relaxed comfort that CC brings when the conditions are right. Even when there's more traffic around, I reckon the planning process you go through makes you almost more alert and aware of vehicle movements and relative speeds than when not using CC. Either way, this was the only key thing missing from my post-Audi S4 life and now my Panda is complete!
The kit can be fitted yourself and although it needs some CANBUS 'learning' for the GC90 control box, I believe this can in fact be done by the home fitter, given the information from Conrad-Anderson. Best speak to them first about that though, as all I did was sit in their waiting room, using their WiFi, drinking their tea and getting on with work seamlessly, which was just so easy.
The technical chap (Andy) talked to me about where to place the stalk, what he had to do and how he planned to do it. The stalk looks OEM as far as I am concerned and you'd not know that it wasn't a Fiat option from the factory. I has all the usual features - On, Set, Cancel, Resume - plus the 2 presents that I have configured for 72mph and 52mph (true GPS), so I have easy access to these speeds as required.
It is off by default and needs to be switched on each journey - a push away. Speed is set with a push Up, cancelled with a Pull and resumed with a push Down. The presets are on a small rocker switch on the end of the control stalk.
I drove up to Birmingham late at night and found that even with careful concentration it was easy for the speed to fluctuate quite a bit. I put this down to small engine, small turbo and at 80mph indicated, quite a bit of boost I suspect. Lift off a little to control any increase in speed and boost drops off more than expected, resulting in dropping off of more speed than I expected. So back on the throttle a little until I'm back to where I want to be. And repeat a mile or so later....
.... driving back however on Cruise and the speed is absolutely stuck rigid at whatever speed I set. Really relaxing and in my 260 motorway miles so far, I reckon about 10% better on fuel as a result. I came back at a true 75mph or thereabouts and saw 45mph average (only 8000 miles on the engine, so still 'running in'!), which is a good 4 or 5mpg more than I got on the way there.
But I didn't buy it to save fuel, I just wanted the relaxed comfort that CC brings when the conditions are right. Even when there's more traffic around, I reckon the planning process you go through makes you almost more alert and aware of vehicle movements and relative speeds than when not using CC. Either way, this was the only key thing missing from my post-Audi S4 life and now my Panda is complete!
The kit can be fitted yourself and although it needs some CANBUS 'learning' for the GC90 control box, I believe this can in fact be done by the home fitter, given the information from Conrad-Anderson. Best speak to them first about that though, as all I did was sit in their waiting room, using their WiFi, drinking their tea and getting on with work seamlessly, which was just so easy.
