The message from "Jules" contains these words:
It just doesn't happen very often, and on the rare occasion when it does it's no matter. Good autoboxes are very smooth about their changes. Most passengers probably don't even notice. Come to think of it, most drivers probably don't either.
The message from "Mike G" contains these words:
There's two other ways of dealing with it. You can either drive so that it doesn't change gear on the way round - not hard once you get used to it, or you can just ignore it. It doesn't upset the handling noticably.
I was a little worried about it shifting down i the wet around country lanes and putting the load on the front, and lightening the back end.
thanks. i guess i will soon get used to it, i got used to power steering after a while, but i think this car has abs, never had that before, it scares me a little.
im not worried about accelerating and changing, i was just cautous of the other way around
>
The answer is 'slow in, fast out' when driving an auto.
If you lift off on the approach and set the car up, you can then floor the throttle, forcing a kickdown in the appropriate place to accellerate cleanly through the bend. If you have the throttle floored, the car won't change up until nearly the redline.
The message from "Jules" contains these words:
I actually got mine to do something the other day. Some tit pulled out in front of me from a side road leading into a 60mph road. Full ABS stop
- then his friend in the car behind him still waiting shouted that it wasn't that bad and why did I stop?!
Nothing new about that. My '67 Riley Elf works like that.
With a completely separate position for the gearlever? I suspect you mean using the auto box in the manual select mode. The 2, 3, or 4 position position. If that is the case, steptronic is not quite the same. Mike.
It all seems like more trouble than driving a manual to me... :-)
Chris
The message from Chris Whelan contains these words:
In practice, I just drive the thing. Perhaps once a month I feel the need to over-ride its views on what gear it should be in. All this stuff about "Losing control because it's changed gear half way round a corner" is for people who drive more aggressively than I do.
RIC, that'll me then :-)
Chris
I drive aggressively round twisty roads when road conditions permit. None of my autos have ever changed gear noticeably when I don't want them to.
Stop worrying about it and just drive it.
I can assure you, driving a manual is a lot more troublesome!
True, it doesn't have a separate gear lever position. But it can be driven as a true (clutchless) manual as you can select 1, 2, 3 or 4 at will.
Your post got me thinking. The main difference, apart from the ease of just pushing the lever backwards or forwards, without having to bother about actually selecting a gear, seems to be that steptronic holds the gear both ways, unless the revs drop too low. Whereas with a straight auto selecting a gear only stops it changing any higher. IOW it will still change down automatically, if you floor the accelerator, and you're going slow enough. It appears that steptronic means it won't change down unless the engine simply can't pull the selected gear, because the revs are too low. I do think stepronic is easier, and is more like a manual box, than using manual select with a conventional auto. Having said that, there's not enough difference to get excited about. :-) Mike.
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