Just wondering what hidden features you've discovered on your Dakota that weren't necessarily known about or in the manual.

After owning my 2011 Dakota since around June of 2011 and covering 98k miles I experienced a new feature today.

I was driving back from North Carolina taking it easy through the mountain backroads. Most of the trip I had the cruise control set. While coming down a fairly steep grade the truck was picking up some speed. When it got about 10mph over my set speed the transmission downshifted to help keep it in check.

I see this all the time when I'm using tow/haul mode and tap the brakes to slow but this wasn't the case. I didn't touch the brakes and was not using tow/haul.

Once it leveled out and got backto my set speed it upshifted like normal and kept rolling. A few miles later going down another steep grade it did the same thing.

I rarely use the cruise and many times when driving very hilly areas I'll use tow/haul just for that downshift when braking feature. Took me almost seven years to discover the cruise control will call for a downshift to help slow the vehicle also.

Pretty neat feature. I've never seen that in another vehicle. Our Regal has adaptive cruise control and it just hits the brakes and is a little more abrupt. It would be nice if it did the same thing instead of it riding the brakes down every hill.

 

Most vehicles do this. May not be as noticeable as the Dakota.

 

I rented about 23 cars last year alone and have never seen that occur unless the trans was in some sort of sport mode or the brakes were pressed. Of course hitting the brakes usually cancels the cruise anyway. But many of them required me to use the brakes on steep grades to get the speed back in check.

I also don't recall renting any Chrysler vehicles and maybe that is one of the things they do better than others.