Automatic Gearbox.

[Dishmop]

Who drives cars with auto boxes.

How many of those use their left foot on the brake to hold the car?

 

[Headnavigator]

Who drives cars with auto boxes.

How many of those use their left foot on the brake to hold the car?

Never, because I also drive a manual sometimes.

 

[madasafish]

Who drives cars with auto boxes.

How many of those use their left foot on the brake to hold the car?

Never. I also drive a manual...

 

[Torq]

Never, always use the right.

Holding the car on the brakes is to be discouraged as it can cause the discs to warp if they are hot. You should put it into park and handbrake on if stopped for more than a few seconds especially if after braking from speed when the discs could be especially hot.

I drive both automatic and manual. I also ride British and Japanese motorbikes where the brake and gear pedals are reversed and the change pattern is 1 up 3 down on the brits and 1 down 5 up on the japs!! Confusing or what!

 

[Black Comb]

Auto only and never use left foot to brake.
Both our cars manuals say when stopped keep your foot on the footbrake until it is time to go.

 

[Dishmop]

Auto only and never use left foot to brake.
Both our cars manuals say when stopped keep your foot on the footbrake until it is time to go.

edited because I mis read it..

but you do hold the car at lights with the foot brake.. What about when starting away? P to drive with foot on brake?

 

[Dishmop]

I'm asking this because somebody on a forum says he is having trouble with getting his Bentley out of a parking space which involves reversing up a hill.
He said he cant get his foot from the brake to the throttle quick enough to stop the car rolling.
I said hold the car on the brake with left foot as if using a clutch.
Somebody else said never never oh so no go not to use left foot on brake, but...to use the handbrake.............which in the case of the model in question.... is operated by the left foot, so really in this instance, no difference. he then said that using the brake and throttle at the same time might cause an accident in an emergency stop....?????????????? which is true but not relevant to pulling away from rest.

Brake pedals on auto cars were made twice as wide so you could use both feet. My model has a foot operated parking brake to set it, but to release it you have to reach down and search for the lever, rather akin to feeling for the bonnet release.

 

[madasafish]

If I had to, I would left foot brake. But I don't have to so I don't.

I'm a creature of pragmatism..

 

[drstitson]

does his car not have hill start assist? (or just naturally want to creep forward).

answer is to use handbrake like one would in a manual.

but in that specific situation why not use the brake pedal with left foot.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Drive SWBO's auto, always right foot on brake -a few years ago driving an automatic hire car home and as approaching the Severn bridge tolls went to drop a gear (Firm believer in engine braking me) put foot on 'clutch'- and promtly did a 70mph pirouette in the middle lane!!
When SWMBO had a Smart I'd just open the door and use my foot to stop it rolling back!

 

[VEG]

extremely dangerous to use your left foot to brake in an auto.
Just imagine left foot on the brake right on the accelerator with some revs, left foot off the car will shoot forward/reverse.
I have driven all sorts of automatics including busses only use right foot.

 

[Black Comb]

I agree but Honest John doesn't.

honestjohn.co.uk/faq/driving-automatics-safely/

If you put www. in front of the honest it will take you there.

 

[alanf]

Anybody who uses manuals too will instinctively use the right foot for both pedals. I've only ever hired or borrowed automatics so that's what I've always done routinely.

HOWEVER, there is a school of thought that it's safer to use left foot braking if you only ever drive automatics. That's what I know driving instructors have taught Australian relatives to use, because they say they find driving manuals occasionally difficult because of it. Exact practice may vary by state, driving licences and regulations vary - in some you need to "pass the test" in a manual to drive a manual (as in UK) in others you don't. Is it the Victoria border where everybody takes the test and registers a car on the NSW side if they can?* They were told it's quicker to brake if your left "spare" foot is hovering over the brake and you do start moving unintentionally (hill, engine surge, accidental touch on the accelerator etc).

If you're used to left foot clutch, there's a tendency to brake heavily if you try braking left foot when you're moving but there's nothing I can see wrong with holding your position for a moment with a left foot on the brake if you're moving away on a hill. It's what I've seen Aussies do all the time. Following another car up or down a hill, they even expect to "read" the brake lights coming on as "about to move off".

Racing and rally drivers use left foot braking, but that's another place and time.

* Was at one time anyway, I think it was said Victoria had harder driving tests and an MOT type test and NSW didn't.

 

[madasafish]

There are lots of stories of elderly drivers of automatics accidentally pressing the accelerator rather than the footbrake - especially when parking - and demolishing whatever was in their way. One of my uncles demolished the rear of his garage like that in the 1970s--- it turned out he had Parkinson's..

I can see in theory that left foot braking would help that situation BUT how many elderly drivers have been taught to do it when younger or who could adapt when in their 60s, 70s or older? Not many I would suggest.

I discount myself as I'm a young OAP

 

[Dishmop]

extremely dangerous to use your left foot to brake in an auto.
Just imagine left foot on the brake right on the accelerator with some revs, left foot off the car will shoot forward/reverse.
I have driven all sorts of automatics including busses only use right foot.

that sort of also can apply with too many revs and dropping the clutch a bit sharp.

 

[Dishmop]

does his car not have hill start assist? (or just naturally want to creep forward).

answer is to use handbrake like one would in a manual.

but in that specific situation why not use the brake pedal with left foot.

thats what I suggested to the person who was having trouble, use the brake pedal as if he was using a clutch..

I think that some Bentley parking brakes are applied and released with the pedal and doing that would be the same as using the footbrake. Some are automatic release, but it seems as if his car is the same as mine and you have to grope around under the dash for the release lever. Mercedes is a handle on dash that you pull out and twist to release.

Only time I use my handbrake is just before the MOT to see if it works.

 

[REDWOOD]

Toe and heel, anyone who has raced cars will know what I mean

 

[oliver90owner]

Perhaps some should read the highway code?

Something about signals - stop lights mean 'the car is stopping', or at least decelerating at a pace, not 'the car is stopped and these lights will remain on for the duration of the umpteen traffic light signals'.

The auto gear box is not an auto clutch - that is the fluid drive coupling (torque converter). The auto box changes gear for the driver and there is no reason why neutral (not a gear) should not be selected and the hand brake applied when the car is at rest, just as it should be for a maual gearbox. Just lazy drivers who haven't got a clue, IMO. Applies to all who sit with their foot on the brake when stationary in a queue of traffic. Let's face it there are milions out there who would not even know how to oil their dipstick and a lot who wouldn't be able to fill the windscreen washer. Drivers, not motorists - and likely should only be known as aimers and steerers.

Apart from the comment re hot discs, the torque converter is consuming energy all the time the drive position is selected, producing unecessary heat within the torque converter.

RAB

 

[Dishmop]

I agree with Rab mostly.
With modern cars that have rear lights stacked up each side of the car to the roof, yes its bloody annoying to be blinded by car in front, and you cant even creep close enough the blot them out.. the rear lights on my cars are quite low ( what happened to the regulation regarding this) and due to the fact that everybody seems they have to sit close enough to see the condition od the inside of my exhaust pipes, they are therefore not affected if I have my foot on the brake.. Sometimes I even annnoy them by using just enough pressure on the brake to make the light show..
Actually both cars only creep if slightly off the level.

In some states of the US ( possibly all ) when a car is waiting in the middle of the road to turn left (our right) the driver must have their foot on the brake so that idiots approaching from behind can see that the car is not moving. In an automatic you would be doing this anyway.

As for handbrake at traffic lights.. I have a feeling, but not certain, that a learner driver is now not told they must use handbrake.

Let's face it there are milions out there who would not even know how to oil their dipstick and a lot who wouldn't be able to fill the windscreen washer. Drivers, not motorists - and likely should only be known as aimers and steerers.

Love it. So true.

My favourites are the ones who really honestly believe that vehicles on a dual carriageway are supposed to give way to them when they are joining from a slip road. Or those that join and race up the inside, cross to the middel lane, out to the third lane, back to the middle, then to the inside.........and get off at the next junction.......and in fact would have been better off it they had stayed in nearside lane, because you got there before they did.

 

[pargyle]

I agree with Rab mostly.

My favourites are the ones who really honestly believe that vehicles on a dual carriageway are supposed to give way to them when they are joining from a slip road. Or those that join and race up the inside, cross to the middel lane, out to the third lane, back to the middle, then to the inside.........and get off at the next junction.......and in fact would have been better off it they had stayed in nearside lane, because you got there before they did.

The worst offenders are those lunatics who get into the middle lane of motorways and sit there at 62 mph when the inside lane is empty ... I know they have brought it in as a traffic offence but I don't think the message has got home yet.

Other thing that SHOULD be an offence is the use of rear fog lights when there is no blasted fog ... what is it with people ? A bit of rain and all of a sudden you are faced with high intensity Blackpool illuminations at the back of every other car... do they really think that you can't see them with the normal level of rear lights ? Or is that they think they need to use them once in a while to keep them working ?