BUG in Cruise Control on 97 GLX?!?

["Khan M. Klatt" <kmk@pacificrim.net>]

OK, check this out.

I'm driving along at 30 in a 25 zone in the middle of a speed trap that I
know cops like to hide out in. Since I know my spedometer shows three miles
faster than it really is, I figure I'm going about 27 mph in a 25. Driving
27mph is really hard in these GLXes, you just want to step on it right?

So what I usually do is set my cruise control during this stretch, just to
avoid the lead-foot syndrome to get me a ticket. Yeah, it's kind of strange
setting cruise at 30mph.

Anyway, so not realizing that I've for some reason shifted into neutral, I
hit the cruise button.

Lo and behold, WHILE THE CAR IS IN NEUTRAL, the tach starts to climb and
climb and climb, I'm assuming until the engine would blow up. (I quickly
hit the brake to turn off the cruise)

This seems like a BUG! Check this out: Set your cruise in 4th gear (on the
freeway) to 60mph. Then, without turning cruise off, shift into fifth gear.
You'll notice that your car (if it's like mine) will turn Cruise Control
off. (I'm assuming because the clutch went in)

Yet, when you're cruising in neutral, and you hit cruise control, your
engine will try to accellerate you up to speed! I know this is a fairly
UNCOMMON and would RARELY ever happen, but the fact that it wasn't
anticipated seems a little strange to me.

Tell me I'm off my rocker, or tell me the VW engineers missed this one. I
would expect this behavior from a "Unix-like" car where the OS gives you
enough rope to hang you, but it seems to me that today's consumer cars are
supposed to be more "Mac-like", where you're "politely asked to please have
a seat and enjoy the in-flight movie" ***.

- -Khan

*** This is from an article on the net that compares operating systems to
airplanes. Unix airplanes would have all passengers show up with the parts
to the plane, and organize and assemble the parts on the runway. MacOS is
where, when you get up to ask a question, a friendly flight attendant tells
you to kindly take your seat and enjoy the inflight movie... If I recall
correctly, Windows airplanes crash every five minutes, whenever someone
does something innocuous like opening their tray table or hitting the
attendant button, yet noone seems to mind. ***

Khan Klatt					   khan@pacificrim.net
Pacific Rim Network, Inc.			    (360) 650-0442 x13
http://www.khan.org			     http://www.pacificrim.net

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