How to drive an automatic

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lucy_w86 wrote: »

Thanks....lets just see how it goes. I am trying to understand as much as possible as I am having lessons in a semi-automatic.

Ask your Instructor to explain how normal Auto's work, he/she should be able to help.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

lucy_w86 wrote: »

Please be patient with me.

I understand the concept of Drive, Neutral and Park and when and how they should be used. I cant get my head around the concept on 1-2-3. Does anyone actually use these when they drive their automatic?

Its quite simple.

In D, the car will drive from 1st gear to 5th gear (or 4th, depends how many gears your box has), using all the gears inbetween. The car will decide which gear it needs based upon road speed and accelerator position.

In 3, it will not go higher than 3rd gear - so you'll never see 4th.
In 2, it will not go higher than 2nd
In 1, it will stay in first gear permanently.

These options are useful because the engine will be at a higher rpm (revs) when in a lower gear. So if you're driving down a steep hill in D, and the car starts going faster (even though you've taken your foot off the accelerator), you'll need to use the brakes. Now while going down that hill, if you change from D to 3, the car will instantly be limited to 3rd gear and below. Presuming that while in D the car was in it's highest gear, it will change down to 3rd gear. The revs will be much higher and the speed of the engine (rpm) will effectively limit the speed of the car down the hill. This is called engine braking, its the same thing as what happens when you're in 2nd gear in a manual car and you take your foot off the accelerator - the engine slows the car down, without using the brakes.


You can also use 1, 2 or 3 on tight twisty roads, since there are fewer gearchanges there is less wear and tear on the gearbox, and the car will also be more controllable through corners as the drive to the wheels is much smoother - if you don't understand this, just try and imagine changing gear half way through a corner at a reasonably high speed - the car will buck around and it will be more difficult to control.

Thats it really.

Miseryschild

Not sure if anyone meantioned this as i only read the first page

when parking in a car park or side of the road - do the neutral/handbrake one instead of park.

reason? if someone hits your car when its in park - it can seriously screw your gearbox up - whereas if its in neutral/handbrake - itll just damage the car and save you alot of money as you dont need to replace gearbox

~MC

lucy_w86

Miseryschild wrote: »

Not sure if anyone meantioned this as i only read the first page

when parking in a car park or side of the road - do the neutral/handbrake one instead of park.

reason? if someone hits your car when its in park - it can seriously screw your gearbox up - whereas if its in neutral/handbrake - itll just damage the car and save you alot of money as you dont need to replace gearbox

~MC

hmm...I thought it always had to be in Park when you left the car.

lucy_w86

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Its quite simple.

In D, the car will drive from 1st gear to 5th gear (or 4th, depends how many gears your box has), using all the gears inbetween. The car will decide which gear it needs based upon road speed and accelerator position.

In 3, it will not go higher than 3rd gear - so you'll never see 4th.
In 2, it will not go higher than 2nd
In 1, it will stay in first gear permanently.

These options are useful because the engine will be at a higher rpm (revs) when in a lower gear. So if you're driving down a steep hill in D, and the car starts going faster (even though you've taken your foot off the accelerator), you'll need to use the brakes. Now while going down that hill, if you change from D to 3, the car will instantly be limited to 3rd gear and below. Presuming that while in D the car was in it's highest gear, it will change down to 3rd gear. The revs will be much higher and the speed of the engine (rpm) will effectively limit the speed of the car down the hill. This is called engine braking, its the same thing as what happens when you're in 2nd gear in a manual car and you take your foot off the accelerator - the engine slows the car down, without using the brakes.


You can also use 1, 2 or 3 on tight twisty roads, since there are fewer gearchanges there is less wear and tear on the gearbox, and the car will also be more controllable through corners as the drive to the wheels is much smoother - if you don't understand this, just try and imagine changing gear half way through a corner at a reasonably high speed - the car will buck around and it will be more difficult to control.

Thats it really.

Thanks for this, it really is starting to make sense! So can you change from drive to 1, 2 or 3 whilst driving or would it be before you set of etc...?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Miseryschild wrote: »

Not sure if anyone meantioned this as i only read the first page

when parking in a car park or side of the road - do the neutral/handbrake one instead of park.

reason? if someone hits your car when its in park - it can seriously screw your gearbox up - whereas if its in neutral/handbrake - itll just damage the car and save you alot of money as you dont need to replace gearbox

~MC

All it will 'screw up' is the parking pawl, and I doubt it would even damage that - you certainly wouldn't ever need to replace the gearbox.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

lucy_w86 wrote: »

Thanks for this, it really is starting to make sense! So can you change from drive to 1, 2 or 3 whilst driving or would it be before you set of etc...?

You change when you're driving - it isn't changing gear, its just limiting the number of gears the car can choose from.

Try it the next time you're out, do 40mph and change into 4 or 3, whichever is first. Once you do it a couple of times you'll understand.

h5djr

when parking in a car park or side of the road - do the neutral/handbrake one instead of park.

Although it can depend on the make of car,on my particular car, which is an Audi A3 2.0TDI S-tronic you cannot remove the key from the ignition unless the lever is in the park position. The lever must also be in the park position and you must apply pressure to the foot-brake in-order to start the car.

This applies to all Volkswagen Group cars including Audi, Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda.

The S-tronic or DSG gearbox is used on many of this Groups smaller cars like the A3 and Golf for example. It allows the driving to choose D for normal driving or to change gear manually using the lever or paddles on the steering wheel but without the need for a clutch. Audi's other than the A3 have a different gearbox called the multi-tronic which works in much the same way.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Add Mercedes to that list, and Volvo (re the key)

demented_2

lucy_w86 wrote: »

Thanks for this, it really is starting to make sense! So can you change from drive to 1, 2 or 3 whilst driving or would it be before you set of etc...?

HI, i have just got a Automatic car a Vaxhall vectra 1.6. I was also wondering when i needed to use the " gear" 1.2.3. after reading this interesting post, i now know. I used the different gears when i was going down hill. It seemed to me that when i was going down a not too steep incline that i had to use 3 even though i still had to apply the brakes, 2 meant that i didn't have to brake, the engine slowed down the car and when i used 1 the car went at a very slow speed and screamed a bit, so i didn't use that one very long. so basically i think that after reading these posts, it has helped me a lot. to sumerise. 3 is to slow the car down on a not so steep incline, 2 would be for a more steeper incline and 1 would be for a really steep incline such as the road in Ventnor which is a really scary road and so steep. Have i got the gears and the useage right? The one thing that i cannot understand is the snowflake thing that comes on the gear shifter. When would i use that? But thanks for all the interesting posts and also to Lucy_ w86 for starting this post.:T