SHE SAYS...

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32998, 18 August 1972, Page 20

SHE SAYS...

I’m told that in the United States it’s not at all uncommon for a driver to be quite unable to use the normal gearbox and clutch, for they have done all their driving in cars with automatic gearboxes.

Here it’s the other way around: most drivers have only a vague idea about the use of an automatic gearbox, and lots of women who have been driving automatic cars for quite a long time have never progressed much beyond the knowledge that putting the lever in "D” makes the car go forward, putting it in “R” makes it go backwards, “N” is neutral, and “P” is parking lock. It’s not confined to women, either. One woman who drives an automatic and does use the selector to get the gear she wants, when she wants it—not all the time, but on hills, and in similar situations—tells me her husband doesn’t see eye-to-eye with her on this at all.

But she is right. You can just pop the lever in “D” and let the gearbox do its bit, and most of them do it very well too. But you can drive better, more safely, and with extra control if you learn to use the controls properly as well.

Hills are the most common example, because in normal day-to-day driving

on the flat the gearbox can be left pretty much to its own devices.

But going up hills, a lot of automatic gearboxes change down for the steep bits, then up again as the slope eases, down again as you accelerate, up again as you slow for a curve—its up and down much, much, more than necessary. So you should just put the lever in “2,” “1,” or “Hold” —it varies from car to car, so check your car and handbook—and prevent all the unnecessary changes. Because the gearbox won’t change up every time you take your foot off the accelerator, you’ll have more control, too. Coming down hills, putting the lever into a lower gear saves the brakes and gives you extra control. You can leave the thing in “D” and just keep using the brakes, but it’s not good driving. With a normal gearbox car, you’d never come down a long hill in top, would you? You’d follow the rule about coming down in the same gear you’d use to go up.

Once you learn to use an automatic gearbox properly, you’ll realise just how much better it is than a normal gearbox. I’m sure that nearly all women would demand the family’s next car be an automatic if they had tried one for a while.