I was driving at 65mph and decided to coast and slow my speed to 50mph, as there is congested traffic ahead. I know the radar will adjust my speed according but I wanted a slower set speed anyway. I held the cruise control lever in its downward position (thinking it was going to cause the car to coast and slow) Oh Oh! This thing is applying the brakes hard! I instinctively press the gas but it kept decelerating, no affects at all except the tranny downshifting or engine revving. I couldn't tell which, the radio was loud and it happened so quickly. Moral to the story- I guess I should have read the owners manual. The manual say every .75 second the lever is held down the cars speed will be dropped 5 mph.

My question is- since the car was applying the brakes and I overreacted and pressed the accelerator at the same time, was there a possibility of damaging a component? Has anyone else experienced this? I know these cars are engineered extremely well.

 

You're fine. Pressing the gas pedal should override the cruise characteristics. The risk is that if you are accelerating and happen to ride the tail of another car with the cruise on, once you disengage the gas pedal the car will essentially slam on the brakes for you thinking you're about to plow into someone.