An adaptive vehicle control system that classifies a drivers driving style based on vehicle headway control. The system reads sensor signals to identify the range and range rate between a subject vehicle and a preceding vehicle, where the range rate is close to zero if the distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle is relatively steady, the range rate is negative when the subject vehicle is closing in on the preceding vehicle and the range rate is positive when the subject vehicle is falling behind the preceding vehicle. The range rate, the subject vehicle speed and other signals are used to classify the drivers driving style based on how fast the subject vehicle closes in on the preceding vehicle or falls behind, and the following distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle. The system can then classify the headway-control maneuver using selected discriminant features.