I have many years of driving experience, but have only driven cars with manual gearboxes. The car I’m planning to buy now is an automatic. How difficult is it to learn how to drive it? What do I need to know? ss
The good news is that your driving is about to get easier, not harder.
You’ll know what to do – and what not to do – within a few minutes, and soon the automatic process will become your natural reaction. Because you have to get used to doing less, not more.
If your knowledge of automation is literally zero, the person selling you the car will explain the process to you to get started faster and more clearly while you’re sitting in the car rather than trying to turn this article into a step-by-step instruction manual! In abstract words, it is quirky. In practical procedures, it is simple.
You must be in P to park and place your foot on the brake pedal to start, then decide whether to go forward or backward and select the gear position accordingly by pressing the release button on the shift knob.
P for Park, R for Reverse, N for Neutral, and D for Drive are self-explanatory options.
The handbrake works in the same way as a manual gearbox. You only have two pedals – throttle to get going or go faster; The brake pedal either slows down or stops, just like a manual. There is no clutch pedal, so your left foot is redundant all the time.
What’s more, you never need to change gears; The automatic gearbox will make changes for you as you accelerate or decelerate, depending on your speed and load, uphill or downhill, and how hard you press the accelerator.
There are provisions for ‘overrun’ in the gearbox decisions under special circumstances, with a ‘restrictor’ setting (2 and/or L), which can keep it in a lower gear when you want engine braking on a steep incline or consistently high revs when climbing steeply Very high or crossing very deep water.
There’s also a ‘roll down’ mechanism on the throttle if you want a sudden change in power that needs higher revs than the gearbox would normally choose.
Automation systems do more than just save you the physical hassle of pressing a clutch and shifting a manual transmission (no small feat when you’re driving around places with lots of speed bumps, traffic jams, and country roads with steep obstacles).
It makes reversing easier because you can turn easier in your seat (your left foot can follow your hip), and close maneuvers in any direction can be controlled more precisely without the clutch slipping.
Likewise, when pulling forward in stopped traffic or picking your way along a bumpy track filled with ruts, rocks and undulations.
Negotiating a bump with just one speed on the highway routinely involves six gear changes. Longer distance cruising involves between 20 and 100 bumps – hundreds of gear changes! It’s not your problem anymore. Brake, bump crossing, acceleration. The automatic gearbox does the rest.
Some automatic machines have an “overdrive” button at the base of the shift knob. The default position should be ‘On’, allowing the gearbox to select the highest gear when necessary.
Turn it off only as a “restrictor” for engine braking when going downhill at higher speeds. Automatic 4WD systems often have a manual shift to engage 4WD and low range. Just like the manual, so no conversion therapy needed there.
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