Q&A for How to Drive a Car With an Automatic Transmission

It's a kind of manual car that doesn't have the clutch pedal, and you have to change gears yourself. They're a little trickier to drive than an automatic, but it's mostly a matter of preference if you know how to drive.

There are accessibility kits available to modify your car with left-foot pedals. Local medical professionals or disability organizations can help you with this. Usually, you'll have to take your car to a mechanic and get the kit installed. Your health insurance might cover it, or you might be able to get financial assistance from a nonprofit disability organization if you don't have health insurance.

Yes. In fact, many newer models have a remote start feature, which allows you to press a button on your key fob to start your car from a distance away. That being said, it's always safer to keep your foot on the brake at all times when you're starting your car and shifting it into drive.

Yes. As long as you're driving and moving forward, your right foot is always going to be on the accelerator. You're not going to have it slammed to the floor, though. Press on it just enough to keep your car moving forward at roughly the same speed. If your car starts to speed up, let off the accelerator a little until your speed stabilizes. If you need to slow down significantly or stop, take your foot off the accelerator and put it on the brake.

When you put your foot on the gas, your car will move forward—not backward—as long as the car is in drive. You might not move very quickly, but you should be able to get up the incline just fine. You might want to use a lower gear if you're not going anywhere and you're just spinning your wheels. If you're worried about rolling back—for example, if there's a car behind you—you can pull up the parking brake, then put your foot on the accelerator to rev the engine a little as you release the parking brake. This will get you up and moving forward without rolling back at all.

There's no real reason to use your hand brake, or parking brake, in heavy traffic—the brake pedal will do just fine. You only really need to engage the parking brake when you're parked. The only exception might be if you're stopped on a steep incline. The parking brake can keep your car from rolling during the fraction of a second it takes you to move your foot from the brake to the accelerator (or if your foot happens to shift or twitch off the brake by accident).

It's not illegal, it's just not the way most people were taught to drive. In a manual car, you have to operate both the brake and the accelerator with your right foot because you need your left foot for the clutch. An automatic doesn't have a clutch, which means the left foot doesn't have anything to do. But because most people learned how to drive operating the brake and the accelerator with their right foot, in an emergency situation, your reaction time might not be quick enough if you're trying to brake with your left foot.

Generally, yes, if you want to stop your car completely, you'll need to push it all the way down. You don't want to immediately do this, though—unless you need to slam on your brakes really quickly for some reason. Gradually press down to slow, then stop your car.

It's definitely better to just use the brake. If you're sitting stopped somewhere and it looks like you're going to be there for a while—for example, if you're at a standstill due to a wreck or other road blockage—go ahead and put your car in park and shut off the engine. But in normal stop-and-go traffic, or when stopped at a red light, this is totally unnecessary and just puts additional wear on your transmission. Keep your foot on the brake and leave it in drive.

No, this is not recommended at all. It can be very dangerous because, in the event of an accident or sudden stop, you don't necessarily have time to determine which foot is which. It's safer to just use one foot that can be quickly switched from pedal to pedal.

For an automatic transmission, it is not necessary to use two feet, because you should never hit the brakes and the accelerator at the same time. Use the rest provided for your second foot.

No. The brake slows down your forward momentum by converting kinetic energy from rotating wheels into heat, or in the case of hybrids, electrical potential energy to store in batteries. Once the car is slowed/stopped, you'd have to engage reverse gear to go into reverse.

If you are parked, place the lever in P (park). If you are stopped for a traffic signal or similar, leave the lever in D (drive) and keep your foot on the brake.

Yes, if you don't want the car to move.

Going into park while the car is moving is a massive no-no. When you put the car into park, a prawl locks the output gear and prevents it from turning. If you engage park whilst the car is moving, you will destroy either the prawl or the output gear (which is a very expensive job to fix). Just leave the car in drive until you come to park up unless you're stuck in a traffic jam. You'll have more control of the car and in some situations leaving it in drive provides better fuel economy (in a modern car) as the engine will use the speed of the wheels to keep the engine rotating rather than providing fuel (in neutral it cannot do that).

No. In a conventional automatic, a torque converter is used, which allows the engine to stay connected to the transmission so you can come to a complete stop without the car stalling.

You can, but it's advised to keep it in D (unless you're stuck there for awhile). It won't harm the gearbox.

Park (gear) is used as a fail safe for if your handbrake fails. It uses a prawl which locks the output shaft from spinning so the gearbox cannot spin. If you park on a flat surface, then yes it would hold the car, but on a hill, chances are the prawl could snap under the strain of holding your car in place and not only would this ruin the gearbox but would send your car flying down the hill.

This is for when you're in sport mode. If you bump the shifter towards the +, the car will up shift, and down towards the - will downshift.

S stands for "sport". On twisty roads, this allows you to keep your RPM up as you wind through corners. B doesn't have anything it stands for. B increases engine drag so that you can slow your car when going down a hill.

If you're referring to the pedals, there are only two, brake and accelerator. If you're referring to the actual mechanism of the gearboxes, dual clutch gearboxes have two clutches. When you're in, say 2nd, and you're about to change into 3rd, the dual clutch gearbox will already be spinning 3rd gear with one clutch so when 3rd gear is selected, it can engage very quickly.

L stands for "Low" and it keeps the gearbox in a low gear. This is useful for towing, as lower gears make it easier to tow or when driving in icy conditions which allows something called "engine braking" to be more effective so you rely less on your brakes so the car doesn't skid all over the place. "2" means the car will use 1st and 2nd gear but will not exceed 2nd gear, even if you accelerate hard.

Yes.

No, the car changes gears automatically. That's why it's called an "automatic." You only have to control the gas pedal and the brakes.

Yes, as long as it is in neutral.

You simply push the accelerator as needed to get up the hill.

You have to put an automatic car in park before starting it.

Yes, you should always slow down before entering the curve or turning, then you can accelerate once the turn is completed halfway.

Be prepared to almost floor the gas pedal when you leave the junction, because if it's busy, you need to take advantage of gaps that might be a little tight. Go too slowly and you'll cause a pile-up behind you in the roundabout. There is no way to "safely" leave a busy roundabout, because you're supposed to wait for a suitably safe gap which - because it's busy - never presents itself.

How a car accelerates depends on many different factors, not just gearbox: weight, torque, power, etc. For example, a Lexus LS400 automatic will accelerate slowly because it's a very heavy car. A Mercedes C63 AMG automatic will accelerate fast because it has a lot of power to overcome the weight.