The difference between those who are good at driving automatic cars and those who aren’t, is whether or not they understand the characteristics of automatic vehicles and how to use them well.
Starting
Because automatic cars have no clutch like a manual car, they can easily start smoothly, but can be even smoother by taking advantage of the characteristics of an automatic further.
This is by using the "creep phenomenon".
The creep phenomenon is a phenomenon in which the car moves forward by simply releasing the brake without stepping on the accelerator while in the D gear.
When you start off, do not step on the accelerator suddenly. Instead, first gently release the brakes, allowing the car to creep forward, then slowly depress the accelerator. By doing this, you can start very smoothly.
Acceleration
There are two ways to accelerate quickly on highways and up slopes, etc.
Utilisation of the OD OFF button
When travelling at high speeds such as on expressways, the car will use overdrive, a gear above 4th gear.
Overdrive is ideal for high-speed driving, but acceleration is inferior.
To accelerate quickly, press the OD OFF button to shift down to 4th gear.
If you shift down a gear, the engine speed increases and you can accelerate more rapidly.
Furthermore, if you put the shift lever in a lower range such as 3rd gear, you get even more powerful acceleration.
kick down
Another way by using "kick-down". This is a characteristic only of automatic cars.
When you want to accelerate rapidly, step on the accelerator assertively. It may be worrying that the car will accelerate too suddenly, but this is not the case.
When you step on the accelerator, the car will automatically shift down a gear and accelerate.
However, this method has a slight time lag, so if you want to accelerate quickly, it is a good idea to shift down by using the OD OFF button introduced earlier or by operating the shift lever.
Deceleration
The D range of automotive vehicles covers all the gears and is great because it automatically shifts, but when decelerating, the engine brake will not work.
If you are travelling at low speed, you can get enough braking power with just the foot brake. However, relying only on the foot brake at high speeds is a little worrying.
In such a case, if you turn off overdrive with the OD OFF button, the engine brake will work.
In addition, you can obtain sufficient engine braking by selecting a low gear with the shift lever. This will allow you to decelerate with a sense of urgency.
Mountain roads
If you are travelling on a mountain road with many ups and downs and curves, high gears are automatically selected in the D range, so the response of the engine to the accelerator becomes dull.
If you want to accelerate here, the car will not accelerate quickly, and if you think that you want to decelerate, even when you release the accelerator, the engine brakes will not start and it will be unstable.
In such a case, lock the engine into a low gear to improve the response of the engine to the accelerator, and so that the engine brake works more effectively.
Turn off the overdrive with the OD OFF button, or if you have a 3rd speed range, drive in this range.
By understanding the features of the automatic car in this way, you will be able to travel more carefully.
I wonder if a person who can drive like this can say that he is a good driver.
