Going from 4th/5th gear straight to 2nd

iguana

When driving with my instructor he has told me that it's fine to change straight down to the gear I need as soon as I need it. So for example, if I'm driving in 4th and approaching a roundabout, his instructions are (1) brake to reduce speed (2) get into 2nd gear (3) then continue through roundabout/come to complete stop depending on traffic.

When driving with my dad last week, he was telling me to (1) brake (2) get into 3rd (3) get into 2nd (4) continue/stop as necessary. When I told my dad I was just going straight from 4th to 2nd he said I shouldn't and it was a bad habit to get into. But when I told him it was what my instructor advised he conceded that the advice might be different now to when he learned in the 70s. I asked my husband what he does and says he goes straight down to 2nd though he shouldn't. I asked why he shouldn't and he said his dad (who taught him) said you should always go down one gear at a time.

So what's the right thing to do? My inclination is to trust my instructor who seems like an absolute perfectionist of a driver/instructor and who is more likely to be most up to date with driving methods than my dad and father-in-law who both learned four decades ago. But I know that instructors aren't infallible, I have a friend who's also a new learner driver, who's been driving a few months ahead of me, and her instructor didn't teach her a lot of basic stuff and never noticed some bad habits she picked up. I think my own instructor is excellent but as I only first got behind a wheel in July, I'm aware that my experience is too limited to fully trust my opinion.

Lia_lia

My instructor told me I can do this but didn't recommend doing it for the test. He said that most testers testers prefer going down gear by gear.

I rarely do it to be honest. Just got in the habit of going down gear by gear when practicing for my test.

Edit: Actually thinking again I often go from 4th to 2nd when coming to roundabouts. Hard to remember what you do when driving!

LeinsterDub

Perfectly fine to go 4 to 2. It's outdated advice to gear all the way down.

SickBoy

I would says that as long as your target revs are not going to be crazy high there's no problem going down 2 gears in one change.

For a driving test however I would think the tester would be expecting you to go sequentially.

LeinsterDub

SickBoy wrote: »

For a driving test however I would think the tester would be expecting you to go sequentially.

Did my test 10 years ago and didn't gear sequently. No issues

Boeing777

Perfectly fine to go from 5th or 4th to 2nd. You just have to make sure you brake enough so that you're at the correct speed for 2nd gear when you engage it, otherwise you'll jolt forwards. I passed my test just over a month ago and I didn't sequentially downshift, so I don't think it's a problem.

Alanstrainor

Block changing (from 4th to 2nd) is perfectly fine. In fact, I would rather block change than have to fuss around going through 3rd and then 2nd. But it does depend on the situation, sometimes you want 3rd gear!

As for the thinking from the 70's, when a lot of cars did not have disc brakes at all, or power assist brakes it was preferable to use the gears to help slow the car. Now however, it is very much a rule of gears to go, brakes to slow. So the need to come down through all the gears is just not there.

Best of luck OP!

iguana

Alanstrainor wrote: »

gears to go, brakes to slow.

My instructor is always saying that to me when I ask about gear changes and reading this post is the very first time I've truly fully understood it.:o When I was first driving without my instructor I was very juddery even changing from 3rd to 2nd because I wasn't braking enough for the lower gear. I discussed it with him on my next lesson and he helped me realise how important it was to reduce my speed sufficiently. It's only more recently that I've been driving enough in 4th gear to need to go down more than one gear at a time but I know to reduce my speed enough for the change to be smooth. It was just my dad being pretty horrified by me doing it that made me question it.

MascotDec85

Both options are totally acceptable.

I prefer to teach my own pupils to slow down gradually on approach to the roundabout by braking and going down through the gears sequentially, one by one. This gives them more time to assess who's approaching the roundabout at the same time.

Dravokivich

I think part of it, may be the instructor also wants you to show, you know what gear the car is in by going down sequentially instead of skipping.

CSSE09

Lia_lia wrote: »

My instructor told me I can do this but didn't recommend doing it for the test. He said that most testers testers prefer going down gear by gear.

I rarely do it to be honest. Just got in the habit of going down gear by gear when practicing for my test.

Edit: Actually thinking again I often go from 4th to 2nd when coming to roundabouts. Hard to remember what you do when driving!

And on the opposite side of this when I was learning my instructor said testers like to see you skipping gears when slowing down such as 4th to 2nd. As long as you're in an appropriate gear it's all good either way.