new-kid

Had a hire car in Holland last month - a basic Citroen C4. Not a 5'er, but a pretty decent drive for the money (at least for a week).

One thing it did have on this basic model was a very simple cruise control - with two features I can't find on my supposedly more sophisticated 530d (2004)
* suspend the cruise but retaining the speed setting - on the Citroen one button suspends then repress and resumes. I may be missing something, but only way I can find to do on BM is to press the brake pedal, which isn't smooth, or cancel and have to reset fully ? Is it there somewhere
* the citroen can switch mode in one touch from speed hold to upper speed limit - great for busy trafffic but lots of police / cameras, or for me to avoid accidentally getting too fast with a trailer. There is a speeed limit function settable by 63 keys on the i-drive, but so hard work only tried it once - not the simple and intuitive one touch of the Citroen

So have I missed the BM features - or does a cheap french car show us how to do controls properly ?

kscarrol

Yes, the cruise control stalk on the steering column can do all this. Set your desired speed, when you need to deactivate, move the stalk up or down. This will turn off the cruise control but keep the desired speed stored. To resume, press the small button on the stalk and preset speed will be resumed.

The slow down or speed up, can be done several ways. Pull towards you to slow or push away to accelerate, but not past the resistance point. When you release, the preset speed will be resumed. You can also move the preset speed in 1 or 5 mph (1km/h or 10 km/h) increments by pushing the stalk or pulling breifly (1km/h) or past the resistance point (10 km/h).

PS - See page 58 of the manual...

1 Maintaining and storing speed,
accelerating
Press the lever up to the resistance point:
The current speed is maintained and
stored. The display 1 in the speedometer
indicates this regulated speed, refer to
page 59. Every time you briefly press the
lever, the vehicle's speed increases by
roughly 1 mph/1 km/h.
Press the lever for longer:
The vehicle accelerates without pressure
on the accelerator pedal. The system maintains
and stores your current speed as
soon as you release the lever.
Press the lever beyond the resistance
point:
Speed is increased by 5 mph/10 km/h.
The vehicle may accelerate beyond the
regulated speed on steep downhill
stretches where the engine's braking effect
alone may not be sufficient to slow the
vehicle. Speed can drop on uphill grades if
the engine output is insufficient.
2 Maintaining and storing speed,
decelerating
Pull the lever up to the resistance point:
Functions same as 1, only the vehicle
speed is reduced.
3 Interrupting cruise control
With the cruise control active, briefly press
the lever up or down.
In addition, cruise control is interrupted
automatically
> when you apply pressure to the brake
pedal
> when you press the clutch or engage
position N of the automatic transmission
> when the DSC system is in active operation.
4 Recalling stored speed
Press button 4 briefly: the vehicle accelerates
to and maintains the last speed stored.

Rudy

Correct. The only minor error is that the acceleration or deceleration function increases or decreases the speed in 1mph/kph increments or to the nearest 5mph/kph increment. In other words, pushing the stalk to the first detent will increase by 1mph/kph each time you press it but pressing it to the second detent will not add 5mph/kph, it'll add whatever it needs to add to bring it up to the next 5 or 0 increment. (If you're set at 58mph and press it to the second detent, your set point will become 60mph, not 63mph...)

MacSid

+1. Also, the speed limit function in the I-Drive of our cars does not restrict the speed we can go at - it simply sounds a "ding" when you exceed the speed that was input into it (only one ding, unlike my previous saab which dinged continuously until I slowed back down.