hey

as per topic, can anyone recommend an aftermarket cruise control kit, or even tell me what NOT to buy?

my old alfa 156 had an aftermarket one. it was ok, but nothing special. it was slow to response to changes in speed, meaning the speed would drift up/down by 3~5km/h before responding, and would often overshoot the set speed by 5~7km/h before settling back down.

even the factory cruise in my wife's subie is like that.

but the factory one in my current alfa is great. very quick to respond, and keeps the car at speed very accurately. and the factory cruise i had in my old, old toyota MR2 was great in the same way.

the kit will be fitted to an old alfa i am planning on buying. i do a lot of highway driving, so it is 'essential'. i've never fitted one before, but may give it a go. but if pro-installation isn't expensive, i may as well let them do it.

so, if you can provide details of brand and model, and where to buy, that would be great. and an idea of the cost. i suppose i'll 'pay what it takes' to have a really good one, if such a thing exists in the aftermarket world.

TIA.

woohoo finally get to reply to a Shiny Q......
anyways check out the Dakota CRS series,Ive sold the motorcycle range of products and find Dakota to be the ducks guts when it comes to speedos.
Its the top end so expect the pricey tag that hugs it!!!
Check it out and if you want to get it locally shoot me a pm and Ill send you the importers name as they are Brissy based.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/pag...prod/prd393.htm

Command Cruise, have a look at them Rich...

I am with George, the Command ones are great, especially the drive-by wire ones. Just ensure they are installed correctly; and you will love it.

thanks guys.

@ sidecar44: haven't seen you around here for ages! good to hear from you.

@ George/TEG: thanks. where can i buy these or check them out? the car (alfa 155) is not FBW, but old skool cable throttle control. do they hold speed well, without significant drift?

and about installation: what makes it a 'proper'/good installation vs bad?

what i DON'T like, as experienced with my wife's subie impreza MY05 factory cruise, and my old aftermarket in the alfa 156, are:
*relatively slow response when you first 'set' the speed: eg: you hit 100km/h, then hit 'set', and take foot off accelerator; car could/would then slow down to ~95km/h before cruise finally cuts in and brings car back up to speed
*driving over a small hill: car might drift down to ~95km/h before cruise accelerates the car back up to speed; on the way down the hill, it might accelerate the car to 105km/h before backing off

that kinda thing is too 'wishy washy', and frustrates me. whereas, the better systems i've had/used will keep things within about 2km/h, and feel 'in control'.

is this totally depending on the cruise control unit? or is it at least in part to do with how many 'pulses' the speedo signal wire produces (eg: 2000ppk (pulses per km) vs 4000 vs 8000).

anyway, i'll check the websites for these two brands, and see if i can get a good impression of their quality of function.

i've also read about Auscruise. any opinions, good or bad? http://www.dynamco.com.au/Sales/Cruise/index.html

Autron?
Dont know much about them other than they are apparently australian.

I looked at fitting cruise to the panda bus and pretty much everyone suggested the autron or the command. I think the difference was basically the command used a battery in the steering wheel controls where as the autron used the horn button power.


^ Edit Auscruise is Autron unit I was talking about

ah ok. thanks for the input.

one thing about the Auscruise/Autron, is that they say it can be reprogrammed (if required) to work with alternative 'stalks'. i really dislike the look of the supplied stalks; they look cheap and 'afterthought'. i am planning to source an OE alfa cruise stalk from another car in the same era (ie: US-spec 164) and mount that to the console; i expect the cruise will need to be reprogrammed for it to work (ie: depends upon the resistor values in the stalk).

i don't know if the Command can have that done. i haven't read anything about it, so will need to investigate further.

All Dynamco products are usually pretty good, and the support that comes along with them is definately top notch.