[vharihar]

Originally Posted by autocrat

... cruise control (which, in my opinion, in a non-autobox car is absolute nonsense), ...

Thats not true at all. I have driven manual tranny car with cruise control for over a decade in the US. Its every bit useful.

If your contention is that its not useful in city roads bcoz gears need to keep being shifted, well, thats true to some extent (bcoz CC disengages when you press the clutch), but then, by that token, in our cities, its very unlikely anyone will be able to use CC even in auto-tranny cars!

As regards highway driving in India, CC with manual trannys is every bit useful (esp if you're a guy who is contented to cruise at say 100 kmph on top gear, as opposed to one who drives like on a race track wanting to downshift and aggressively overtake whatever is in front of you!! (shifting gears would entail pressing clutch and that disengages CC)).

[autotranny]

Originally Posted by bhaskaracs

So the 16 lakhs starting price mentioned above sounds credible - undercutting Tuscon while pulling above the Creta wee bit.

Agree that there is no comparison, but Creta ex showroom is just Rs 9.82 Lacs (petrol) and Rs 10 Lacs (diesel); all together a different category.

You are right, it undercuts the Tucson base model by a good 4 lacs. But the important question is, will FCA be benchmarking its offering against Tuscon, which itself has been selling an average of 250 numbers only in the last 6 months.

Realistically, FCA is looking to eat out of pie which is dominated by the Toyota Fortuner with an average monthly sales average of 2000, and Ford Endevour coming in a distant second at 600 odd.

No other manufacturer has any volumes in this segment, so there is not much room to improvise. Let's wait and watch. I guess average of 500 units should make FCA happy.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by autotranny

Agree that there is no comparison, but Creta ex showroom is just Rs 9.82 Lacs (petrol) and Rs 10 Lacs (diesel); all together a different category.

That's the 1.4 diesel. 1.6 diesel starts at 12.5L onwards till 14.56L

When comparing against a 2L diesel, let's atleast take the 1.6 diesel. The 90bhp 1.4 diesel is nowhere close to the 173bhp diesel of the Compass.

[autocrat]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Funnily enough - I believe this 'absolute nonsense' was first done by FCA itself with the Linea - which had cruise control with a manual transmission.

Wasn't it Hyundai Verna in India? Fiat followed I guess.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The disadvantage? You need to ensure the right gear is selected for the cruising speed. Whereas when coupled with an automatic transmission, the car is free the select the ratio that feels ideal to it. Also, hitting the resume function in a manual transmission might evoke more extreme speed variations. If you're in fifth gear and in turbo lag zone, it will take time for the speeds to build up as the transmission cannot shift down on its own.

Perfect!

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

However, if you are in the right gear and right speeds - I don't see any reason why cruise control wouldn't be anything short of a bliss - specially on the modern expressways.

This is where I differ - although the roads are awesome we have haphazard traffic and gross disregard to lane discipline - people cutting you off and trucks riding the overtake lane - still a long way to go in traffic discipline :(

Originally Posted by vharihar

Thats not true at all. I have driven manual tranny car with cruise control for over a decade in the US. Its every bit useful.

If your contention is that its not useful in city roads bcoz gears need to keep being shifted, well, thats true to some extent (bcoz CC disengages when you press the clutch), but then, by that token, in our cities, its very unlikely anyone will be able to use CC even in auto-tranny cars!

As regards highway driving in India, CC with manual trannys is every bit useful (esp if you're a guy who is contented to cruise at say 100 kmph on top gear, as opposed to one who drives like on a race track wanting to downshift and aggressively overtake whatever is in front of you!! (shifting gears would entail pressing clutch and that disengages CC)).

I too have driven extensively in Canada - and loved the cruise control there as the highway limit in Canada is 100 kmph. Rarely do you see people breaking lanes and almost everyone drive maturely.

However, in India, traffic apart, you also have huge topographical variations and roads, signs and markings are not consistent.

On a drive, I stopped by a roadside place for tea, and I discovered the "tawa" that was used to toast bread was actually a roadsign that was conveniently removed for this purpose.

[deepjaju]

Even in the leaked brochure it says "Google Carplay" If this really goes through FCA is in for an embarrassment troll on twitter.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by autocrat

However, in India, traffic apart, you also have huge topographical variations and roads, signs and markings are not consistent.

I agree about traffic conditions. I was just trying to dispute the one point about CC in India being useful *only* in auto-tranny cars. Thats not true. Its as useful in manual tranny cars, even in India.

It might well be less useful than in the developed world, but that statement is valid for auto-trannys as much as for manual-trannys.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by autocrat

Wasn't it Hyundai Verna in India? Fiat followed I guess.

From the Verna review -

What you won't:

• Missing equipment (vis a vis competition). E.g. rear a/c vents, touchscreen headunit & cruise control

Originally Posted by autocrat

This is where I differ - although the roads are awesome we have haphazard traffic and gross disregard to lane discipline - people cutting you off and trucks riding the overtake lane - still a long way to go in traffic discipline :(

And traffic gets better if cruise control is used with automatic? Even there, any inputs on the brake pedal will disable cruise control.

At maximum, the difference would be that every time this might happen - the manual might require an additional shift or two. Which is perfectly fine - the choice should be left to users.

[Jaggu]

Off topic: I use a car and a bike! with cruise control and I drive in India, so i think am qualified enough to comment a little more on this feature.

This feature i would rate at 1 or 2 out of 5 in India wrt usability; especially the southern half of India. Unless you are doing 4 lane free highways like the new ones in UP, it is pretty much useless and one looses interest after the initial hype. More so in manual car where one can mostly engage cruise control only at higher gears. With automatics it is little better since one can play around a bit more to accelerate and decelerate in traffic conditions also.

If you ask me in manual car the advantage of having cruise control is actually the acceleration it would offer, compared to regular throttle inputs a driver can give. Have always observed cruise control enabled acceleration is much more aggressive. This actually is the fun part!

Last but not the least, if you are a driving enthusiast you will hardly ever press those buttons!

EDIT: Missing feature wise i would say the auto dimming mirror as most glaring, then comes rear seat AC controls, auto head light followed by the wiper as missed much more.

@sparameswaran: Saw your reply during edit, yes TN does have better off highways and one can use it especially during weekdays travel i guess. Still i would term it a least missed feature.

[sparameswaran]

Originally Posted by autocrat

.... cruise control (which, in my opinion, in a non-autobox car is absolute nonsense).... .

Honestly, I am surprised with this statement. Can you please elaborate what makes you think that it doesn't make sense?

I am driving a Linea T Jet for past two and half years (2014 updated version, Emotion variant with Cruise control, 41000+ on the ODO now) and I find it a very useful and convenient function - thanks to the highways in TN. The car's manual clearly says that the cruise control should be engaged only in the 5th year and once the speed is >60km/hr. I use it quite often on the highways and never faced any issues. It allows you to do a lot of things with your left hand - accelerate, decelerate, return to pre-set speed by hitting the reset knob etc. I personally find it very useful. One additional advantage is that it often stops my tendency to overspeed (by fixing a speed), beyond I actually intent to.

I have also used cruise control quite a bit on an automatic car (Subaru Outback, in the US, during one of my trips there) and didn't notice any issues with using the cruise control on my T Jet, compared to the automatic gear box.

[smsrini]

Spoke to the KHT Agencies showroom and came to know that they are launching the Compass on 20th June evening. So vehicle should be on display. Not sure when they can offer test drives.

Rs. 50,000/- booking amount.

Only Diesel Manual Transmission available now, Petrol+ AT will be 2 months down the line.

[PraNeel]

According to Motoroids Jeep Compass can be booked online by logging into the official site or through the nearest dealer by paying Rs. 50000.
The Jeep India site also has a link to register interest for Jeep Compass. Link

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Off topic: I use a car and a bike! with cruise control and I drive in India, so i think am qualified enough to comment a little more on this feature.

This feature i would rate at 1 or 2 out of 5 in India wrt usability; especially the southern half of India. Unless you are doing 4 lane free highways like the new ones in UP, it is pretty much useless and one looses interest after the initial hype. More so in manual car where one can mostly engage cruise control only at higher gears. With automatics it is little better since one can play around a bit more to accelerate and decelerate in traffic conditions also.

If you ask me in manual car the advantage of having cruise control is actually the acceleration it would offer, compared to regular throttle inputs a driver can give. Have always observed cruise control enabled acceleration is much more aggressive. This actually is the fun part!

Last but not the least, if you are a driving enthusiast you will hardly ever press those buttons!

Very true. In 1.5L kms of using a vehicle with cruise control feature, i would have probably used CC mode for 500-1000 kms

Also controlling the acceleration suits better for our conditions. We tend to keep foot off, from any of ABC pedal in this mode. Cruising on constant acceleration, when you see someone standing on the median is very dangerous. They can step onto the road anytime and & personally feel the reaction time in this mode is high

[jaganpec2002]

Quite a few points have been made about cruise control. As a owner of Scross and frequent user of CC, I can say that if you have never used CC before you wouldnt miss it much. But if you had and if you frequently drive in the highways you will miss it big time and I feel jeep made a mistake by not offering it. I have used it in bangalore chennai highway (via vellore), bangalore-pune and it is quite useful and relaxing. My friend who owns a xuv uses the same every time he drives in bangalore - pune highway and hails the feature. Even an enthusiastic driver would want to relax sometime if he is driving 300-400 Kms twice a week(atleast).

Comparing the price difference between scross delta and zeta variant and the difference in features I dont think CC would cross more than 20k so its bit strange that Jeep is not offering it.

[v6kgang]

Originally Posted by autocrat

However, in India, traffic apart, you also have huge topographical variations and roads, signs and markings are not consistent.

I drive a Renault duster AWD with Cruise control and do regular trips from Bangalore to Chennai and Madurai, roads are excellent. Every single trip I will engage cruise only to suddenly break because of a pedestrian crossing or trying to take a turn in lower speed, and I forgot to re-engage though there is a convenient button on the steering to re-engage on the same speed from memory. honestly CC would be the leased missed feature IMHO.

Originally Posted by autocrat

On a drive, I stopped by a roadside place for tea, and I discovered the "tawa" that was used to toast bread was actually a roadsign that was conveniently removed for this purpose.

are you serious, this is the first time I am listening to something like this. Had to ask, did you try their Dosa or paratha ?

[Esu Junior]

Today spoke to pinnacle jeep,kochi and they confirmed vehicle will be on display from tomorrow onwards.So for bhpians in and around kochi can have a good feel of compass and please drop your valuable feed backs..