NY wrote
R D S wrote
R D S wrote

I've never owned an automatic and never wanted one but I test drove one
yesterday and while i'm not going to be buying that particular one
having driven it i'm wondering if i'd actually prefer an auto.

Got it and loving it. It probably helps that it has a fair bit of grunt
but it's a joy to drive. I'm a convert.

I feel i'm always on the brakes though, doesn't seem to slow down nearly
as much as a manual when you come off the gas.

I presume they are clever enough to use the engine/gearbox during
braking? Or do they chew through pads?

And what do folk tend to do at traffic lights? I'd normally neutral and
handbrake but that's less intuitive in this.
I'm guessing this is why i've been sick of staring at other's brake
lights for years, i've probably been behind autos.

I've never owned an automatic.

Me neither but I do plan to have one with the next car,
soon, mainly because I want a very fancy cruise control
for long distance trips which I do quite a bit and also
for the convenience around town, not having to
manually change gears at most corners.

The few times I've driven one as a hire car when going on business
journeys, I've found that I have to fight them.

I always used the work vehicles for those and they
were always automatics, never had to fight any of
them. But then I dont drive anything like you do.

Mind you, the last time I drove an automatic (Ford Focus) was about 20
years ago, and technology has changed.

The work cars were much older than that but big 6s.

With that caveat about old technology, I found it difficult to accelerate
smoothly through a roundabout. In a manual I would change into the correct
gear (eg 3rd) as I had finished braking and as I was about to enter the
roundabout, and then I would *stay* in that gear as I accelerated round
and out of the roundabout, changing up to a higher gear when I'd finished
the acceleration.

Around town I stay in 3rd all the time and mostly change down
to 2nd around corners. In a car with 5th overdrive which only
gets used when out of town.

Automatics tend to change down as I increase the power, so I get a sudden,
unexpected surge of power. I never mastered the trick of being able to get
just the right amount of accelerator pressure so I accelerated in the
*correct* gear (dropping into 2nd is usually not the right gear!). I
either got too little acceleration in one gear or else too much in the
next gear down.

You must be too rough with the accelerator.

At traffic lights, and when doing a hill start, I would *always* use the
handbrake to hold the car. And in traffic lights, I'd go into neutral so
the car would not creep forwards: I will not hold a car on the footbrake
because this dazzles the car behind (especially at night) with my brake
lights.

I never do that and no one else does that either.

My instructor (ex police Class 1 instructor) drummed into me "footbrake
for stopping the car; handbrake for *staying* stopped".

Just because one individual does it that way doesnt mean you have
to do it that way. What makes sense is what matters and that doesnt.

If I stop in a queue of traffic, I go into neutral with handbrake if I
anticipate that I will not be setting off again for more than about 10
seconds.

I dont fart around like that, even in a traffic jam.

Oh, and in an automatic I *always* use my right foot for braking, as in a
manual, because my left foot has too much muscle-memory of big clutch
movements rather than small, precise footbrake/accelerator movements.

You are remarkably unadaptable, likely thats the accelerator problem.

The only exception is for manoeuvring inch-by-inch, when accelerator alone
doesn't give enough control (the car tends to move in surges) and where in
a manual I'd keep constant engine speed (maybe foot-off idling) and
control the speed by letting the clutch up to the bite point and then
lowering it again once the car is moving.

Thats why you need new clutches so often. I have never had to replace
one, even in the Golf which I used every day from new for 45 years.

Even in out manual Honda CRV which has hill-start assist, I do not use
this feature because I do not trust it: I've had the car roll backwards a
foot or so, so I always use the handbrake - that's that it's there for.

I'd be interested to try a DSB (automated manual gearbox) where I could
control *when* the car changed gear but the gearbox took the hassle out of
*how* the gearchange was achieved, giving a smoother up- or down- change.

I dont see the point in manually changing with an auto unless
its to avoid overheating the brakes on long downhill runs etc.

I wonder how good DSGs are at doing block-changes - eg brake into a hazard
while remaining in 6th, and then change directly into the correct gear for
accelerating out of it, without the need to change sequentially down
through the gears (like I was taught for my normal test in 1980

That teaching was stupid. It hasnt made
sense once hopeless brakes were long gone.

before that test adopted the IAM technique of block changes as I did for
my 1990 IAM test).

My ideal car would be a DSG with a manual clutch pedal that was only used
when setting off from rest, and where an automatic clutch or torque
converter can engage a bit jerkily.

Not with the best autos. ****ed if I want to fart around like
that in traffic.