Changing from manual to Automatic

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Hamruniz

New Member
Posts
2
Hello ,

I need your help guys . I have been driving cars with manual gearbox for over 45 years . Presently I am the owner of a Freelander diesel iand afrer some 49000 km the clutch packed up . I drive in very heavy traffic daily .
Now I am thinking of changiung the car for an automatic .
My difficulty is in controling the car ,specially up hill and down hill .

To be honest I am pretty scared . With the manual it is not a problem becuase I apply the handbrake .

Any help for you with be most appreciated .
 
I've only had to drive an auto on a couple of occasions and it wasn't too difficult. To slow down, you lift off, to slow down more you use the foot brake. Hill starts look after themselves. Borrow one and give it a try - the only difficult bit I found was not using my left foot to operate the non existent clutch pedal and I made a few emergency stops before I tucked my left leg under the seat!
 
Autos are dead easy, just keep your left foot out of the way and don't use it at all. Going down a long steep hill you can drop a gear and put it into the "hold" position same as you would change down on a manual. The only problem is when you drive a manual again you have to remember to put your clutch in when you come to a roundabout or a junction etc or you can give yourself a bit of a shock when you realise you're not going to stop!
 
Best thing about auto is hill starts as it holds itself ready for moving.

Down hill you can either put in one of the drive gears and it holds there or if its a newer auto select hill decent.
 
Oxides advice is good, just tuck your left foot back and try to leave it there; it'll probably take you a couple of days to get used to it, it did me when I went over to the States, but that might have had something to do with the steering wheel on the wrong side too.
The brake pedal in most autos is much bigger than on manuals so you'll find that you'll still be using both feet for an emergency stop.
 
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