Hi,

Being from the UK where the majority of people drive manual cars (stick I think you call it in the USA) I have a gs450h and was wondering what the procedure was with these automatics.

Whenever I stop at traffic lights or park up on a junction awaiting to turn out I pud the gear from Drive into Park. Is this a good habit? as I used to do this in my previous manual car to stop clutch wear or will it do the auto gearbox harm moving it from D to P all the time? Is it better just leaving it in D with foot on the brake.

 

drive into park every time??? I'll understand if you want to put into N, but to P is too much

that is definitely a bad habit to have on automatic, just step on the brake, the whole purpose of automatic is to make driving easier

remember, less movement in the mechanical parts of the car means less wear and tear, what you are doing is entirely unnecessary.

 

yeah, you sure you mean P not N? i can see putting it in N, but P, that's weird

putting the car in P probably won't do much good to the car. putting it in N should be fine, i know in some countries that's actually park of the road test to see if you put the car in N when it's stopped. but for me, i just put it in D

 

Nice one lads!

Ill put it N or more than likely wont bother and leave it in D - best get used to it! Was just thinking of clutch wear.

 

yea, i see people doing this ... it's not really a good idea

as whlkev said, just step on the break ... when you're sitting idle its like hanging out in first, but if you're putting it into park and then back into drive every time you stop it means you have to continuously disengage the park gear and re-engage the driving gears (i feel like i want to draw a diagram because this is kind of hard to explain with just words)

hanging out in neutral isn't really a big deal but it's not necessary, auto doesn't require a lot of thought; gas when you want to move, break when you want to stop

 

Just keep the car in gear "D" and put your foot on the brakes.

 

I have seen my cousins in ENgland do that to there new Automatic cars, and it angers me because it can do too much work for the transmission. You don;t have to put the car in park at all during idle.

 

Its a habit people have going from stick to auto. I have a few friends who pop the tranny into N everytime they come to a stop light. I ask them why and they have no idea.

 

same reason their left legs twitch seeking the pedal that isn't there. muscle memory.

 

I guess thats why they have to put the tranny into N, they have to do soemthing with their right hand. Poor souls, they just cant relax even when they are in a Luxury car

 

lol im coming from a manual car to the lexus and i use to put the car in N all the time when i had the 5spd. now that i have the lexus i just keep it in drive. i guess because i use to drive automatic cars when i had my 5spd that i dont have any kind of habits that i got into.

 

Folks,
What are your thoughts on frequently using the 'autostick' feature when decelerating, vs. the brakes? I figure that's what it's there for, but I am unsure if it shortens the transmission's life.
Thanks!

 

^^

frequent? unless you are out spirited driving, i hope you are not downshifting manually to slow down your car on a daily basis.

which is cheaper to replace, tranny or brakes? yup....

 

Yep thats me scolded makes sense though. I wont go into how I sued to sit in my old car for 1 minute before driving away...

 

I don't plan on keeping this car beyond the warranty period (6/70), so I guess it doesn't matter.