Automatic Cars

sleepypriest

I have been driving manual cars since I started driving 10 years ago. I am changing my car and one of the cars I am looking at is an automatic.

Its a 2.5 V6 engine so I am bit wary whilst test driving this I won't have contol over the car etc.

Has anybody any advice or have I nothing to worry about?

peasant

Plant your left foot as far away from the pedals as you possibly can, otherwise you'll instinctively try to hit the clutch at some stage, hitting the brakes at full whack instead.

Otherwise there's nothing to worry about.

Gatster

They're very easy to drive, I was driving manuals for 13 years and although I drove Autos during this time didn't actually own one. My last two have been Autos, if you do a lot of traffic-bound driving they're brilliant. You've nothing to worry about.

TomMc

Put your left foot away, use your right foot only for both the accelerator and brake pedals, and for god's sake do not stamp on the brakes. Easy does it !

The only thing I would say is once you buy one (and drive it for a while, till it becomes second nature), you will probably never go back to a manual again.

sleepypriest

Cheers,

My current car needs an elephant stamp to break so I'll bear that in mind.

My main worry is parking/reversing etc I am sure as you say it will become second nature.

TomMc

sleepypriest wrote:

Cheers,

My current car needs an elephant stamp to break so I'll bear that in mind.

My main worry is parking/reversing etc I am sure as you say it will become second nature.

Just tip the accelerator pedal when reversing, in fact the engine idle will probably move the car back by itself on flat ground, so in the instance keep your right foot nearer to the brake pedal.

unkel

What car is it?

I'm on automatics now for 6 years and I won't be going back to manuals in a hurry. Switching over was very easy. Not once was my left foot inclined to stamp on the brake

sleepypriest

Its a Mitsubishi Galant

Del2005

My main worry is parking/reversing etc I am sure as you say it will become second nature.

If your parking on a slope, you can use your left foot to brake and control the car with your right foot holding a little bit of throttle. It takes a bit of practice but can be done. Otherwise on flat ground just use the brake on it's own.

TomMc

sleepypriest wrote:

Its a Mitsubishi Galant

Great car for little money. I had two 2.0L Tip-tronics and they did not miss a beat. The 2.5 V6 does not offer much more, other than a little more power and a leather interior. They also only sold the older model in the 2.5 (pre bodykit & facelift) in Ireland even up to 2002 & 2003. These cars were manufactured in the year 2000. The 2.0L got the facelift / avance spec from late 2000 on so these cars were not effected and were brand new cars.

franksm

Our "other" car is an auto and I find I can switch between the manual and the auto with no problem - the good thing about the auto is that once in Drive, when you let off the footbrake, the car crawls along at 1/4 mph, so makes it REALLY easy to park. Same with hillstarts - not an issue.

mike65

Autos rule! I drive a manual van and don't have a problem switching
between the two.

Mike.

Wishbone Ash

mike65 wrote:

Autos rule! I drive a manual van and don't have a problem switching
between the two.

Yup - no bother here either:

Manual trucks
Automatic/manual buses
Manual vans
Automatic car (mine)
Manual car (Mrs WA)

_Kaiser_

On my third Automatic now (plug: fabulous metallic black 02 Passat - 1.9TDI 130Bhp ) and love it a little more every day.

Before that I had 2 Mitsubishi Mirage's - hatchback and coupe versions - and they are a great car too. Never any trouble with either of them.

Once you get used to it you'll never go manual again. Automatics ftw!

Lucifer

i drive a manual myself but i drive alot of different cars in work and automatics are very easy to get used to.

John R

TomMc wrote:

Great car for little money. I had two 2.0L Tip-tronics and they did not miss a beat. The 2.5 V6 does not offer much more, other than a little more power and a leather interior.

I'd agree with that, they are a very good car all round. Particularly for the price you can get a good one for. I've had 2 of them, changed to a Passat after the first one and regretted it.

Of the two I'd go for the 2.5 over the 2.0, it is a much smoother engine and there is not much difference in fuel economy. The Mitsubishi auto box is better than most as well.

zilog_jones

I thought it was safer to use your left foot to brake with autos, as you will be able to respond quicker when you need to brake? Well once you get over the abscence of a clutch of course.

Neil_Sedaka

Been driving an auto for the past 8 months or so, I love it, go get one.

junkyard

Most of my fleets automatic and tbh I prefer it that way, changing gear is just hard work. I'm surprised more cars aren't automatic, I suppose its only a matter of time.

damo605

mike65 wrote:

Autos rule! I drive a manual van and don't have a problem switching
between the two.

Mike.

I do the very same every single day without even thinking, just like second nature, but I recently realised that what's happened is that I've started to consider vans as manuals and cars as automatics.... Sit into another van and no problem whatsoever, sit into a manual car and there's a lot of thinking involved, otherwise grinding and konking
As for driving an automatic - do it and you'll never look back! You'll realise very quickly there's no need to 'stirr' the petrol

nialler

Yes I've had a couple of crunching moments and wondered why the car will not go into gear, then I remembered there's a clutch that needs to be used, plus cutting out coming off the clutch. I've only been driving an auto for 11 months.

And what's with the poster saying he brakes with his left foot, don't racing drivers do that, I'm sure it would feck up your gearbox.

Best bit of an auto is stop on the way up the ilac carpark on the big ramp and just take your foot off everything, car just sits there and they're irreplaceable in heavy slow moving traffic.

Rovi

nialler wrote:

And what's with the poster saying he brakes with his left foot, don't racing drivers do that, I'm sure it would feck up your gearbox.

Educate your left foot to operate the brakes with the same sensitivity you have with your right, and you'll wonder how you ever drove an automatic with only the one foot.
Don't stand on both pedals at once and you'll do no harm.

multiformat14

Kaiser2000 wrote:

On my third Automatic now (plug: fabulous metallic black 02 Passat - 1.9TDI 130Bhp ) and love it a little more every day.

Before that I had 2 Mitsubishi Mirage's - hatchback and coupe versions - and they are a great car too. Never any trouble with either of them.

Once you get used to it you'll never go manual again. Automatics ftw!

Kaiser2000 ,

I used to drive petrol autos however since moving house I had to change to a manual diesel , I'd love to get an auto diesel but what sort of MPG can I expect in town and motorway ?, I remember the petrols used to use a fair bit more than the manuals.

Regards

biko

Agreeing with earlier posts. I go to the US all the time on business and hire out automatics.
Not a bother, after a minute or two you should get the hang of it.
Fuel comsuption should be better too as it automatically changes into the best gear.

AMurphy

Autos are great in stop-n-go traffic like Dub and if you ever suffer a left ankle break a God-send.
I had a spin in a friends BMW with "Tiptronic" or eq. once and thought it great compared to the generic auto-box. Often with a generic, when you let off on teh gas, when aproaching a corner, it upchanges, not downchanges as you might want. the Tiptronic or Manual mode overrides this tendancy.
Therefore, I'd certainly try get a car with the Tiptronic or Manual option as opposed to the "generic response" auto.

However, some gotyas. A friend reported he could not get the car out of P. previously it was working fine. Users manual indicated if this situation occured "take your car to your main dealer". Immediately the $$$ dial starts spinning.
A web search for the specific vehicle suggested checking the brake lights.
Lightbulb replacement cured the problem.
Apparently, for whatever reason, if one of the rear brake lights failed the shifter release mechanism did not operate also. This was not highlighted as the specific condition in the manual.

Funny story, I am quiet used to changing manual gears with my left hand, and man or auto with my right. However, when I got a RHD Auto in Irl, I was screwed. The number of times I "changed gear" is embarrasing. I think I had returned the car before I got into "keep your left hand off the stick" mode. My left hand in not in auto mode.

Larry David

Kaiser2000 wrote:

On my third Automatic now (plug: fabulous metallic black 02 Passat - 1.9TDI 130Bhp ) and love it a little more every day.

What are you "plugging" there? Is it for sale? I'm not exactly clear on why do needed you mention your car!