By Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
With the flooding of markets with hybrid automatic transmission vehicles, it becomes inevitable for a person to ignore the know-how of driving an automatic car.
Generally referred to as self-shifting/auto/n-speed transmission, automatic transmission requires less effort while driving. Sounds great? Yes, of course.
But there is also some opportunity cost involved.
Automatic cars are expensive than traditional transmission cars plus their maintenance is high. More fuel consumption adds to the woe!
Talking of how to drive AT( Automatic Transmission) cars efficiently, let us first talk of few things that one might NOT do while driving AT cars.
Switching neutral while driving
Never tend to switch to ‘neutral’ while driving, as there are some people who believe such switching will result in fuel efficiency! That’s a myth!
Never switch to neutral as it has no potential to save fuel, rather it might turn out to be risky. Risky, as the driver loses his control over vehicle and dodging of any obstacle or lane driving becomes near to impossible!
Never try to shift to opposite gears while vehicle is in motion!
This means shifting from D(Drive) to R(Reverse) or vice-versa while vehicle is in momentum is not a good practice. And you must avoid so to prevent the unnecessary wear and tear of transmission bands. In an AT car, everything is done by transmission bands and clutches that are automatic. Such shifting of gears before a halt will result to extra tension on clutch and band, which I think you surely won’t wish to!
Pick-up Control
While driving a manual transmission car, the driver can adjust the pickup by revving up and adjusting the release of clutch paddle. If the driver wishes, he can take a jerky pick-up if intended.
But that’s not the case in AT cars. The computer system runs the engine and pick-up can’s be adjusted voluntarily.
To take a steady and jerky pick-up some drivers restore to revving the vehicle vigorously at neutral and simultaneously switching to D. a swift pick-up is the result. But you should NOT do this. Such practice may lead to major damages in the engine as you are running the engine, the way it isn’t made to run!
Don’t switch to “P” while the vehicle is in motion
Switching to “P” implies parking the car, thus stopping the car at that very moment. When a driver puts the lever to P before halt, the car will stop within a moment and lose its ability to move forward or backward, which might be hazardous. With being risky, it might tend to harm the engine parts too. So, one must NOT commit such practice.
So next time when you drive an AT car, make sure you do it efficiently and take care of all the things! Happy Driving!
Pictures courtesy: Cartoq, Google images.
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