How to drive an automatic car

My mum drives an auto and I recently visited for over a week and was using her car. My car is manual and the ease of driving an auto is amazing.

The problem I had a few times was when I tried to use my left foot to brake. Since I'm used to using my left foot for clutching I found that instinctively put way too much pressure on the brake and basically slamming on the brakes to a sudden stop! Very dangerous (and scary) but it never happened when there was any car behind me.

One-footed control of the pedals is the best way to drive an auto (for me at least).

Edit: Oh, and I could never start the car if it wasn't in "park" AND with my foot on the brake.
 
Sinbad;8557011[B said:
]Overdrive is actually a longer gear ratio [/B]for freeway cruising at low RPM. Trust the gearbox to select the right gear, it will do so in almost all cases.
If you're on a steep hill, pull up the hand brake, let go the foot brake, push the accelerator a bit then release the handbrake. The torque convertor won't necessarily hold the car stationary at idle.
Click to expand...

Thanks - not much of a car person so have no idea of the terminology. Wife has an i10 so we need the overdrive on the mountain passes (not so sure if we switch it on or off when we use it?)
 
I am right handed and use only my right foot for controlling the two pedals in an auto vehicle.

Climb in
tighten seatbelt
make sure car is in Park
make sure handbrake is up
put right foot on brake pedal
put key in slot and start the engine

to drive forward
move the gear from Park to Drive
lower the handbrake
move your foot from the brake to the acceleration pedal
and gently accelerate forward and you are driving

to reverse
move the gear from Park to Reverse
lower the handbrake
move your foot from the brake pedal to the acceleration pedal
and gently reverse
when finished reversing
put the gear back in Drive and drive off :)

My polo vivo is a pleasure to drive. I find that once warmed up, the little car performs quite well and once you've learned to listen to the gears change, you quickly learn how to make best use of it. You can gear up or down by doing a quick hard pump on your acceleration or by braking with brief pumps to the brake pedal.

I'm a good manual car driver and driving an auto is a pleasure after all the years of gear changing.

I drive at a slower speed until my car temp is right, then I put voet in the hoek and the car performs very well.

I may no longer drive and have a little fantasie of getting into my friends sports car and gunning it up that straight to Langebaan on R27 :D
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Thanks - not much of a car person so have no idea of the terminology. Wife has an i10 so we need the overdrive on the mountain passes (not so sure if we switch it on or off when we use it?)
Click to expand...

Overdrive is on by default, but I suggest you switch it off on mountain passes and the like. As overdrive is not a "strong" gear you might find on a pass that the gearbox changes a lot between O/D and lower gears (also known as hunting). The more this happens, and for long periods, it could cause the gearbox/torque converter to overheat, leaving you with no gears until it has sufficiently cooled down. It is actually the transmission fluid that over heats, and you end up with something similar to a manual transmission with a slipping clutch. To switch off the O/D, simply hit the little switch on the side of the gear lever, the O/D warning light will illuminate on the dash. Take note though, you are then engaging a lower gear, so the same rules as for changing to a lower gear with a manual box would apply, although to a lesser extent, i.e. lower gear requires lower speed.
 
Automatics are really easy to drive, wel in my experience with a Focus 2.0 SI auto.

The only thing that might get people is that you had to have the car in park, foot on the brake peddle before the car would start and when you want to get out of the car, the car then needs to be again in park or otherwise you will not get the key out :)

With the focus as soon as you put it in reverse and lift your foot from the brake the car would reverse no need for the petrol, usually had my foot on the brake a little as it would reverse quite fast on a level surface. It never stalled no matter how badly you drove. Had to give slight petrol or no petrol on "take off" give it a little too much petrol and you would have the tyres squealing and the esp moaning, but hey many a manual car drive could not keep up. ;)

Like said before, no using the left foot for braking, you literally end up stopping dead when you do that. So if you use the left foot you will probably end up with someone rear-ending you due to stopping to fast (focus had abs and ebd so not too sure what will happen in cars without those)

It was really a dream driving in peak hour stop go traffic, basically depending on the speed of the traffic you just lifted your foot of the brake and the car would go, add a tiny bit of petrol if the cars are moving faster than what the automatic does on its own, otherwise you just use the brake pedal.

It will really take only a few minutes to get the hang of it, but someone that can only drive an automatic will really struggle with a manual, hehe. Everything is the same, and if you ask me it is really much easier to drive an automatic compared to a manual.
 
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