Another one about... Driving...

[sted]

Love to see some of you who skip from 2nd to 5th/6th try that up where I live, you obviously don't live anywhere with proper hills:p

 

im originally from doncaster there are no hills

[CHR1S]

Must admit I cant stand autos but I am warming up to these newer autos with twin clutches which make the car feel like it has one massive gear and constant acceleration!

 

I always had manual, I then had a 6 speed DSG in my Audi with flappy paddles and had to admit, it was crude but fun. I then had a 5 speed 1 series auto which I hated, then a 6 speed flappy paddle 5 series which was hit and miss.

 

Now the 8 speed, its a whole new beast, it could do kick-downs a bit more intelligently in D however flicking it over to DS and it comes alive, this is in a diesel X5.

You cant feel the changes under normal driving and only notice it in DS when it revs to the limit, this is with a twin turbo and 600nm of torques And its lazy allllll day long.

[mikeyd101]

Driving has become much duller moving from UK to USA. I used to skip gears quite a lot, 4th - 2nd when heavy braking for tight corners, and 1-3 / 2-4 / 3-5 when pootling around.

 

Going from UK to USA, manual to auto and sport car to SUV is a huge change, here we drive mile after mile on straight road, hour drive to main local shops. 3 hour drive to parent in laws house, 10 hours to Austin.

 

Driving standards here are also much much lower, and lots of big work trucks and 18 wheelers. Always hearing crashes (in the local area) on TV pretty much daily, most fatal.

[Davit2005]

IMO There shouldn't be any problem jumping a gear, as long as the engine is not laboring or being stressed and it depends on the situation.

 

In the early 1990's I went and test drove a MK3 XR3i and accidentally went from 2nd to 5th, I was not driving quick or thrashing the engine and the engine didn't complain.

 

Going down gears it depends on the situation/car but I always balance between gears and brakes for a smother deceleration and not stressing Gearbox, engine or brakes.

 

I have heard of people pulling off in 3rd and knackering their clutches/gearboxes. Should never slip the clutch and should only pull of in 1st or 2nd again depending on the car/situation

[pcstru]

Driving standards here are also much much lower, and lots of big work trucks and 18 wheelers. Always hearing crashes (in the local area) on TV pretty much daily, most fatal.

They kill almost as many people as guns!

 

I'll skip gears - mostly 3rd to 5th, occasionally 4th to second trying to anticipate not stopping at some particular junctions. I don't like Automatics.

[abillybob]

I have a 6 speed gearbox and since owning the car I have only ever used 5th gear once, I normally go from 4th to 6th. My cars quite good though at 30mph it'll happily sit in 6th gear.

 

When overtaking I normally go from 6th to third to get some acceleration, I think you can normally tell nowadays if a car doesn't want to go into that gear, if it doesn't just slot into the gear with minimal effort and your having to push or force the gear in there's a problem.

[difinity]

Sort of the point really isn't it? I have a TD* too. Example - joining m-way. Up to sort of 60 along the slip in 3rd, join carriageway, no real need to accelerate in a meaning full way, change up to 5th. If I feel that I might need some more grunt to get up to 70 quicker, then I select 4th.

 

* In fact two. My wife's is manual, mine is an auto; just point & squirt.

 

I'd be in 4th coming onto a motorway or dual carriage way. Maybe my car is different due to the police remap.