Advice needed: buying smallish auto car

Simple physics I suspect. If you accelerate a car in reverse, the weight of your foot on the throttle increases. As the car accelerates faster, so does the weight of your foot on the throttle carry on increasing.

In a manual you'd normally be covering the clutch with your left foot and would instinctively slip the clutch to control speed. If you're not used to left foot braking, you've got to actively lift your foot off one pedal and move it over to the other (which takes much longer).

I suspect *every* case of supposed "auto-surging/runaway" can be explained by this.

Tim

Indeed. My Dad had autos when I was learning back in the eighties, and that was what I was taught to do.

Should have added "in reverse". I suspect forward surges are pedals getting stuck under mats, wrong pedal stamped on, rarely, sticking throttle cables (but I'm not sure how many cars still have "throttle cables").

Tim

I find pressing an auto brake pedal with the same force that I'd normally depress a manual clutch hurts my nose, so learning that trick is not for me, but YMMV....

So clearly that's a stupid thing to do.

You learned to drive once, can you really not learn a new skill now? I drove to the supermarket and back today left foot braking for the first time. The outward journey felt very weird and my braking wasn't as smooth or as progressive as normal. By the time I made the return journey it was already much improved and felt less weird.

I think it's more "fear of change" than innate inability that's stopping you.

Tim

Great entertainment for onlookers :)

Fear of weirdness.

I drive both manual and automatics and am happy the way things work, that I can jump into any car without much calamity. If I additionally got used to left foot braking on an auto, I'm sure I'd muddle an implementation of that on a manual one, and quickly put the car through a hedge or summat.

The good thing is that when you c*ck it up (as you will in the first few attempts at a semi emergency stop) BOTH feet go for the brake pedal ( I can remember it happening) so you stop very quickly, no real danger.

Like any skill it needs learning. You weren't born with the ability to use a clutch either.

On 16/10/2016 15:31, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: [...]

You think I didn't brake, LOL