Transmission Manual Shift Question

[rtate]

Is it ok to switch from automatic to manual shift and back while the car is in
motion?

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Dosen't hurt it a bit. I do it all the time. Put it in manual for some spirited driving, then back over to auto when I'm done.

 

[rtate]

Thanks for the fast reply !!

 

[my2wins]

Is it ok to switch from automatic to manual shift and back while the car is in
motion?

LOL! I wondered the same thing when I first got the G a few months ago. It just seemed so wrong to throw it into a different gear while driving. I waited several weeks before trying it, and then realized it was lots of fun and not at all the dangerous proposition that I was imagining. I wished I tried it on day one instead of staring at the + and - controls wondering if I would break something expensive if I did it wrong.

The ONE thing I would caution you, based on first hand experience, ahem, is that when you do move to "manual," it may be easy to forget you're not driving in automatic from time to time, so you might want to play extra close attention and/or give yourself a reminder.

For example, I now turn off or keep the music very low when driving in manual, so I can hear what the transmission is doing. I had the tunes cranked the other day as I quickly punched it onto the freeway, and didn't hear that it was time to shift and the tranny was screaming. D'oh.

Of course the tranny won't let you get too far out of bounds before shifting for you...but just saying its something to watch out for, at least at first.

The second thing I noticed, at least for me, is that I had a little trouble with my brain always wanting to shift the gear down not up, when I going from first to second gear. I guess after years of driving a real manual, there's some muscle memory that takes over, even when you know better. It just didn't seem natural for me to tap up, then up again.

So as silly as this sounds, I would plan to practice for a little bit before using manual in real life. Just a few minutes is all it would take.

I'd segment the learning process into two parts: first learn the motion of tapping up, up again, up again, up, up, up, up. And let the car do the down shifting at first. Just learn that up means "next gear."

Then when you have that part down pat, then experiment with downshifting, as a separate learning process. To me, the downshifting is what makes the manual mode fun.

You'll see what I mean only after you try it. I couldn't separate the up tap and down tap at first, because I didn't take a moment to process each. I was mixing it up with my history of driving a stick, which is really very different.

For super experienced drivers and other fast learners in all things cars, this commentary probably won't make any sense. Its really simple for many people, and they can just go for it, without too much thinking. But for anyone like me who was like, "what Is manual mode!?" and then "wait, what? I don't get it!" -- this two part method will help you to internalize it a little easier if you compartmentalize into two discrete motions when you learn. Tap up means next gear. Tap down means lower gear.

It was also save you from accidentally downshifting when you didn't mean to, which jerks the car a little and makes you feel dorky when you have passengers. And when those passengers are your teenagers and their friends, it is exponentially more awkward to call the slightest bit of unwanted attention to your nascent driving methods. ;}