Check to see if it has a sport setting. Far more lively.
Brake with left foot
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Oh and don't forget the first time you drive it, it's the law that you have to forget that it's an automatic and when you first to come to brake, you boot the pedal with your left foot, more or less lifting the back axle off the ground.
Well that's what I did anyway, a long time ago in my boss' very expensive BMW
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you have to forget that it's an automatic and when you first to come to brake, you boot the pedal with your left foot, more or less lifting the back axle off the ground.
Yes I did that too in a hire car in Las Vegas. A Ford Taunus 3.2 with column change automatic. The hire bloke said, "do you know how to drive one of these". "Yeah of course mate, no sweat." was my reply. Figured out how to get it in drive with the bloke watching, rolled to the kerb line, busy traffic on the "Strip", then hit the brake with a left foot that was used to pressing a heavy clutch. Not cool!
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then hit the brake with a left foot thatwas used to pressing a heavy clutch. Not cool!
Very embarrassing indeed. I did it in an immaculate NSU RO80 which not only had a twin-rotor Wankel engine but a 3-speed box with an electric clutch worked by hand pressure on the gear lever (always a silly and annoying idea I thought). First junction, left foot came down on 'clutch' heavily as usual. Oh dear. The car's owner, an African, was polite but far from amused.
In my Plymouth I once put the car in Park (it had a separate lever for the purpose, buttons for the other gears) when it was moving, fortunately quite slowly. There was a loud clang as the transmission lock applied itself, and a chirp from the back tyres, but fortunately US ruggedness meant no damage. Never did it again though.
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Mercedes put the pedal for the "hand"brake where the clutch would normally be on their autos. I've moaned about this before. Insane. I had to sit on my own left foot to stop myself from stomping on the "hand"brake and locking up the rears.
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brake with right foot
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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IIRC this car has an LPG conversion doesn't it? Be interesting to see how the autobox handles the (presumably?) different characteristics of the engine when running on LPG.
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yes thats right
its an lpg car.
I dont think lpg should change the driving characteristics of the car? am i right?
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yes thats right its an lpg car. I dont think lpg should change the driving characteristics of the car? am i right?
Form my own web surfing when considering LPG then economy drops by around 20% and performance drops 'a fair bit' - but that isn't from personal experience.
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yes thats right
its an lpg car.
I dont think lpg should change the driving characteristics of the car? am i right?
how does an auto drive in the wet?
how about in snow?
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how does an auto drive in the wet?
As you would drive any other car - with more care and attention.
how about in snow?
Don't know about the Stering, but my Galant has a "Hold" button. Pressing this stops the car from going any lower than the current "highest" setting (1, 2, 3 or D(4)) which means if you press "Hold" and select "2" it'll hold the car in second to stop you wheelspinning. Effectively the gearbox becomes a semi-automatic at this point. Not all autos have this though - but I'd imagine most will have some sort of snow/ice setting.
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I've always brake in an automatic using my right foot with one exception, on the rare occasions when using a Toyota RAV4 for off-roading.
In fact it's the only way you can go around a 4x4 course in a RAV4, which doesn't have a very low ratio gearbox.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I followed HJ's advice and taught myself to left-foot brake when maneouvring. Much easier to control the vehivcle that way, and a lot safer.
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I followed HJ's advice and taught myself to left-foot brake when maneouvring. Much easier to control the vehivcle that way, and a lot safer.
When parking at low speeds, OK. But do you do it on the road NW?
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>> I followed HJ's advice and taught myself to left-foot brake when >> maneouvring. Much easier to control the vehivcle that way, and a lot safer.
>>When parking at low speeds, OK. But do you do it on the road NW?
Yes: not all the time, but quite often.
When I started doing it, I several times found myself inadvertently winding the two pedals against each other, but that doesn't happen any more now that I am more practised. So I use the left foot when in heavy traffic and may need fast response, but which foot I use the open road depends largely on whether I want to rest my left leg: I now find that my reactions are fine either way.
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I agree TVM. Left foot braking takes real practice, and is only necessary when you are pressing on in an ambitious way. Can be damn dangerous in traffic until the skills are built in. Use the right foot on both pedals, whatever HJ may say, until you have the technique properly internalised.
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I think FIL is using right foot for brake and accelarator.
if a car is left in drive but no pedals pressed at all will the car move forward on its own accord?
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if a car is left in drive but no pedals pressed at all will the car move forward on its own accord?
Downhill, yes
Uphill, probably not, but it shouldn't roll back (if it does get your gearbox seen to)
On the level, it will slowly roll forwards, yes
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I may have missed an answer here, but ref acceleration, if you put your foot to the floor, the 'box will change down to the gear giving maximum acceleration at your current roadspeed. It's known as "kickdown" and is very effective for overtaking, as it'll always put you in the right gear.
Though as was mentioned above, the simplest way to understand it is that you hit the right hand pedal to go and the left hand one to stop. The harder you hit the right hand pedal, the faster it will accelerate.
V
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