Adjusting to an auto after years with a manual

[Six Fiend]

If you have an auto hold the brake lights stay on even with your feet wrapped around your own head

[WinstonWolf]

Mike335i said:

This thread has reinforced my decision to stick with a manual box. Who thought roundabouts could be so fraught with strife?

I swap between auto and manual all the time, I don't even notice what sort of box I'm driving TBH. It just becomes 'automatic' after a while

(Sorry)

[rigga]

KTF said:

A CVT doesn't have gears so when you accelerate the revs will shoot up and stay there until the road speed is where you want it to be.

Unless its the Nissan xtronic cvt gearbox, which has pseudo steps built in to make it feel like a regular auto. Wife's Qashqai has one and I find it to be OK.

[Monkeylegend]

watchnut said:

RTFM (Read The F**ing Manual)

LTSFC.

[The Mad Monk]

A.J.M said:

For my own auto. I move from D to N at lights and apply hand brake.
I was taught to use the handbrake when stationary for a period of time, plus shining brake lights into the car behind is just ignorant.

Don't worry about it.

When you get to red traffic lights, stop, keep foot on brake until lights change, when lights change to green, release brake, gradually and smoothly press down on accelerator pedal. Job done.

What did Sooty say, Sweep?

What about the people behind you at the traffic lights?

That's their own fault for either,

A/ Being close, but not close enough so that your brake lights are hidden under their bonnet

OR

B/ Not being far enough away so that the lights simply don't dazzle.

IF

C/ You are still dazzled, consult an opthalmic specialist.

OR

D/ Stop driving.

HTH

[A.J.M]

Or, I'll ignore all of that and continue to do the stuff I've been doing for over 12 years.

It's not harmed me so far and it keeps the electric hand brake working as they have a habit of sticking if not used.

Feel free to do whatever you do though.

[tonys]

The Mad Monk said:

A.J.M said:

For my own auto. I move from D to N at lights and apply hand brake.
I was taught to use the handbrake when stationary for a period of time, plus shining brake lights into the car behind is just ignorant.

Don't worry about it.

When you get to red traffic lights, stop, keep foot on brake until lights change, when lights change to green, release brake, gradually and smoothly press down on accelerator pedal. Job done.

What did Sooty say, Sweep?

What about the people behind you at the traffic lights?

That's their own fault for either,

A/ Being close, but not close enough so that your brake lights are hidden under their bonnet

OR

B/ Not being far enough away so that the lights simply don't dazzle.

IF

C/ You are still dazzled, consult an opthalmic specialist.

OR

D/ Stop driving.

HTH

That being the case, presumably you'd be quite happy if the driver behind you, particularly at night, left their headlamps on main beam, or switched to main beam as they waited. I guess you might consider that to be inconsiderate of other road users.

Keeping your brake lights, especially the newer brighter led-type, iluminated when waiting at lights is inconsiderate at least.

[Borroxs]

I did an overtake after putting it into 'sport' a few weeks after getting an auto after thirty years of driving manual.

Decided to put it back to drive, for some unknown reason my left foot did a clutch action as I changed.... yes it caught the side of the over large brake peddle.....

All hell broke loose. Car was on its nose, and truck was closing rapidly.

Managed to get it back into sport and mashed the accelerator to warp factor 9 just before the truck that I'd overtaken smashed into me. Just got away with it. No contact.

No idea what the truck driver must have thought. Poor bugger.


I tend to justt leave it in D now as it's plenty fast enough for any overtake. Had left leg amputated just in case.

[culpz]

Monkeylegend said:

KarlMac said:

Because I can't find the 'questions you're too embarrassed to ask' thread I'll ask here.

When in an auto and stationary (lights/traffic etc...) what is the correct procedure? Leave in D and hold the footbrake / leave in D and put on hand brake / knock in Neutral / knock into Park?

Swapping between my manual ST and wife's auto Lupo caused no end of hilarity. I always seemed to forget what to do for the first two minutes

Leave in D with either your foot on the brake of auto hold if you have it so the car behind knows you are ready to go at a moments notice. The brake lights on will mean they are less likely to drive into you. Works even better in the dark.

Yet, i hear a good few on here that say NOT to do this specifically on complaints of being dazzled by people's brake lights.

Never understood that myself really just re-iterating the views of others on here. Not even sure why this is specific to automatics either.

[KTF]

I dont understand why people are dazzled by brake lights either as they are not high intensity like fog lamps (which are annoying if you are stuck behind a car with them on).

[Alex_225]

Borroxs said:

All hell broke loose. Car was on its nose, and truck was closing rapidly.

....Had left leg amputated just in case.

Sound pretty scary but that post did make me chuckle! Reminded me of this...

[irish boy]

Any auto I've driven has been very frustrating in that it doesn't allow you to use in gear torque, despite the engine having plenty to give. Instead when given 75% throttle it shifts down, revs to high heaven, then shifts up again.

[Borroxs]

Alex_225 said:

Sound pretty scary but that post did make me chuckle! Reminded me of this...

It was bloody scary, I went from 70 to about 10 in ten meters. fk knows what the truck driver thought I was doing.

Fortunately it's a pretty high power 4wheel drive (Audi a6 3.0 Quattro ) so when I stamped on the throttle it just took off. Pretty sure a rear wheel drive would have just bogged down.

[Alex_225]

Borroxs said:

It was bloody scary, I went from 70 to about 10 in ten meters. fk knows what the truck driver thought I was doing.

Fortunately it's a pretty high power 4wheel drive (Audi a6 3.0 Quattro ) so when I stamped on the throttle it just took off. Pretty sure a rear wheel drive would have just bogged down.

I can only imagine mate. Essentially an emergency stop as far as the truck was concerned. If you appear on some random dash cam video, we'll back you up haha.

Just as well you've got a gutsy car so at least you managed to get out of the way and leg it.

I have an old diesel auto (E320) and I must say it works brilliantly as an automatic. Clicks out of first nice and quickly so makes decent progress and good in gear torque at least.

[Monkeylegend]

irish boy said:

Any auto I've driven has been very frustrating in that it doesn't allow you to use in gear torque, despite the engine having plenty to give. Instead when given 75% throttle it shifts down, revs to high heaven, then shifts up again.

Most modern auto boxes will adjust to your driving style, so if you generally waft around they can be a bit sluggish when you want to do something a bit different.

You can avoid this problem by using the tiptronic function if you have one. Mine also has an economy and sport mode, switching to sport mode will hang onto each gear higher up the rev range.

All this without moving your left leg.

[Borroxs]

Alex_225 said:

I can only imagine mate. Essentially an emergency stop as far as the truck was concerned. If you appear on some random dash cam video, we'll back you up haha.

That would be funny to see. And most embarrassing.

[alpha channel]

Well I can say I've learned a few things. When I went to a see a XK (J gate style) during lunch I got an unexpected test drive, the first and only time I've driven an auto so far. Quite a drivable car on the throttle really (never got it into sport though, a combination of wet roads and 50 limits) I did however go for the clutch quite a few times, managed to avoid clipping the brake pedal mind, and damn near broke my arm resisting the almost overwhelming urge to change gear when instinct dictated (the clutch changing urge dropped off surprisingly quickly though).

Want one now.

[Antony Moxey]

A.J.M said:

Or, I'll ignore all of that and continue to do the stuff I've been doing for over 12 years.

It's not harmed me so far and it keeps the electric hand brake working as they have a habit of sticking if not used.

Feel free to do whatever you do though.

This habit of sticking, over what sort of period are we talking?

[bennyboysvuk]

cerb4.5lee said:

I nearly put me and my Dad through the windscreen the very first time I drove his auto, I was fine while out driving but I lost concentration when I got back on his drive and thought I was in a manual...and I slammed my left foot on the brake as I came to a stop by mistake!

You do soon get used to them though as others have said.

I did something similar on a petrol station forecourt. I was mid-way through taking my seat-belt off as I pulled up and when I hit the brake pedal with my left foot I shot forwards and my forearm was briefly squashed between my chest and the steering wheel, which beeped the horn and ensured that all the car cleaning guys looked over, suitably amused by my error.

[ch108]

For the first time in 25years of driving I've driven 2 auto hire cars within the last 2 weeks when abroad.

Fairly easy to adapt from a manual, although in the first few hours after driving on the motorway, then approaching a roundabout, my left hand went instinctively to the gear lever to change down. Thankfully the brake pedal wasn't much bigger than a pedal in a manual, so my clutch foot just stamped the floor instead.

I found it brilliant in cities, and stop start traffic. I didn't realise how much time you would normally spend changing gear in these situations, because it is just second nature if you've only driven a manual.

The one downside I found was steep hills, even on the motorway it seemed to lose a bit of speed and struggle to maintain a constant speed. This could just have been the particular model of car though.

Regarding whether to put it into N or just leave it in D at queues at traffic lights or roundabouts. I just left it in D with the handbrake on. There was one occasion when I was stuck in traffic for 20 minutes. We didn't move in that time, so I put it into N with the handbrake on after it was obvious we weren't going to be moving for a while. You could feel it coming out of drive (can best describe as getting the biting point on a manual, then pressing the clutch in, which I suppose the car was doing instead of me). No idea if leaving it in D for a period of time would cause any damage eventually.

Would I buy an auto transmission car? Probably not. There's certainly nothing wrong with them, but my personal preference is for the manual gearbox, as I instantly preferred my own car when I got back into it. However if there was any reason in the future where I had to have an auto, medical reasons, car makers abandon manual cars altogether then I don't think it would be an issue at all.