Hiring a car over Christmas

james_joyce

lawrie28 wrote: »

Also if you are ok driving an Automatic, mention this, but book a manual. means you may get a free upgrade if they have one, and autos can be bigger

Silly question, but I've never driven an automatic - is it difficult to get used to quickly? I heard you have to use the handbrake a lot more and obviously you don't have the clutch pedal available to help, eg for slowing down.

ukjoel

Autos are fairly easy. I was similar to you drove 15 years before I touched one then company car given to me was an auto and I was a bit nervous. Didnt want to prang a 30k car on day one.

Its pretty easy - just be aware the brakes on autos can be a bit sharper than manuals so when first used make sure you dont do an emergency stop on the motorway (like I almost did).

Foot on footbrake and its stopped.
Foot off footbrake and it will start moving slowly off.
Foot on gas - it will speed up.

Your left arm will go into spasm every few minutes as it searches for a non existent gear stick but dont worry about it.

Once you get used to a decent auto its very hard to go back to manual.

Premier_2

ukjoel wrote: »

... just be aware the brakes on autos can be a bit sharper than manuals so when first used make sure you dont do an emergency stop on the motorway (like I almost did). ...

This is probably more to do with a difference in brake feel because it was a different make/model of car that you were otherwise used to.

There should be no significant difference in brake feel between an auto and the equivilent manual car