Aftermarked Cruise Control Units

I'm considering buying a number of very nice, reliable compact cars - thing is, many of them don't come with cruise control, which I consider a necessity. I love my road trips, but they're harder to enjoy with a numb right foot. Does anyone know how reliable aftermarket cruise control units are, around how much they cost to install, where I might get one installed, and what's a typical installation setup look like? I mean, do they just paste a couple of new buttons on the lower dash, or build them into it, or what?

I know that's a lot of questions . . . even if I can only get some of them answered, I'll be grateful.

Check out the Audiovox unit for about $99.00.
Info here:
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/showCustom-0/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2001597/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2001597/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-10101/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=cruise%20control

I put two of them in different cars and they are easy to install. Just connect the wires as shown in the instructions. The most difficult poart is to drill two holes to mount the servo unit. They come with a small control panel you can stick to the dash or mount to a bracket. You could buy one with a more "factory" look but you would spend $150 and up for it.

Uh, what's up with the vacuum canister they recommend for 4-cyl installations?

Sometimes with a 4cyl engine, the power is so low that when you need acceleration, you must open the throttle pretty wide. When the throttle is wide open, the vacuum is very low and may not be enough to hold the cruise control on. There is a DIP Switch setting for low HP 4cyl engines that compensates for some of this but if it still drops out, you can add the vacuum canister. Both of my installations were low HP, 4 cyl engines so I just added the canister as a preventative measure.

Craig

Hm . . . keep in mind that the most in-depth car repair I've ever done was changing the serpentine belt on my old 1996 Lumina. Do you think that this is something that someone with as little mechanical experience as I have can do without screwing something majorly?

If you don't feel comfortable with the installation, have a mechanic do it.
You must work with the throttle linkage and the brake light wiring - both of which are safety-related systems. It's quite an easy installation, but not something I would recommend fro a beginner.

Also put the same unit on my Blazer. Works as good as the factory unit in all respects. Pretty easy install for someone up on car electrics. Got any shadetree mechs. in the neightborhood?

I guess I would agree with MagicRat in that you would need some mechanical aptitude to properly connect and mount the servo/throttle linkage connection. The brake light connection is pretty straight forward but the speed sensor connection can be difficult. I find the biggest difficulty with universal kits is that there are too many instructions intended to cover all vehicles which can be confusing. This and all the extra parts to adapt to everything cna make it difficult for beginners. They do have sections related specifically to your vehicle. If you're not sure, go with Tom's idea and find someone to help.

Yeah, I think I'll do that. Don't want to end up wrapped around a tree because I messed it up, now. Thanks for all the input!