How To Drive An Auto Transmission Car ?

Both feet, bad practice? LOL@Mick...I reckon you would end up through the windscreen the very first time you tried it!

Good advice above, enjoy your new car Mick!

Ah, sorry I misunderstood you Mick but no, holding the brake pedal down will not warp the discs. Discs warp from overheating which can only happen with consistent hard braking from high speed or when going down a long hill. It won't happen when the car is stationary because no heat is generated if the discs are not turning due to the absence of friction. The only risk (very, very slight) is that the hydraulic seals in the master cylinder and wheel cylinders may take a bit of strain and fail prematurely. Not really likely though.

Of course the brake lights may dazzle the person behind but shouldn't be too bad unless the car is fitted with high up ones.

Best to use the hand brake though; less chance of relaxing and letting go the foot brake and creeping into the back of the car in front. It will be a creep though because at tick over most modern auto cars barely move if at all.

Keeping the left foot idle shouldn't be hard - I can change from manual to auto and back without a problem. By the way, just so you don't think I am just talking sh-t i used to be a mechanic, driving instructor, rally driver and professional driver once upon a time.

Being a bright chap I am sure you will not have a problem. Last year I lived with a BMW 325CI for 2 weeks. It had the option to use tiptronic or full auto and I used auto most of the time because the car was brighter than me. It even sensed when we were going downhill and changed itself down to a lower gear to allow for engine braking. At tickover it just sat still and one had to apply some power to get moving again.

Good luck Mick, you'll quickly get the hang of it.

Thanks Syd, very interesting.  As I am changing to the auto version of my present car the instruction book does cover, in a basic way, the auto box.

 If you change down from D to 3rd or 2nd you cannot over rev the engine if you change when going too fast.  It has sensors that will not drop the gear until the road speed is correct, very clever.

The BMW does sound clever with the auto change down for engine braking, albeit a car costing a lot more than the Suzy.  I know that a drop down may well be needed for engine braking.  Driving through the Cotswolds the other week I went down a very steep hill that lasts for well over a mile, that could be fun in the new one.

 Big regret was not trying the earlier series Daihatsu Sirion with the steering wheel flappy paddles, just like the race cars !

Did smile at your BMW being brighter than you comment.  Made me think of modern cameras with superb auto control and clever JPEG algorithms, perfected at great cost by clever Japanese firms.  If an old "bought up on manual cameras" type like me can accept modern tech stuff then why do some reject it. 

To right Mick, if modern technology does the job better then embrace it. Modern digital cameras are so much better than the old clunky things with strips of celuloid inside them. (Or whatever the film was made of.)

I was brought up on old type cars with carbs and distributors with points in them and now have 2 electronically controlled vehicles. I have a 1200 cc 16 valve motor which performs better than the old 1600 cc jobbies and uses half the fuel. Even my 1/2 ton pickup, a 1300 cc job, uses only 8 litres/100 Km. (Around 35 MPG) The 1200 16V Renault does 5.6 litres/100Km. (About 50 MPG).

The only problem is that if either of them stops going I can't fix them because the technicians now use laptops and software to "retune" them. The Renault went into "safe mode" a while back whist doing 70 MPH in the fast lane. That means it won't go over 20 MPH to safeguard the engine. Very scary but luckily it came right and I got home ok. The agents plugged the laptop in and  found that the upstream lambda sensor was giving false readings. I thought it would need replacing but they fixed it with a few keystrokes and it hasn't misbehaved again. Yes technology is good, but can cause problemswhen it fails. No fixing it on the hard shoulder with pliers and piece of wire.

Hi Mick,

Have you collected your new motor then? How are you doing with the slushbox? (That's mechanic's slang for an automatic gearbox.)