A proper language comparison...

Walter Bright newshound2 at digitalmars.com
Fri Jul 26 15:52:08 PDT 2013


On 7/26/2013 2:15 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> I think most automatics lock the steering wheel upon power off (probably
> as some kind of safety guard, maybe against inadvertent damage by some
> parts that expect power to be running when the wheel is turned?).

It's an anti-theft feature.


> I also use manual downshifting on my car (auto transmission) to force it
> to slow down -- e.g., down a hill, when the automatic transmission will
> often blindly shift to a high gear and you'll find yourself having to
> burn up much of your brakes to keep the speed under control. My car has
> a button that locks the maximum gear to 3rd, which is useful for keeping
> within city street limits when going downhill. It also has gear
> positions to force a switch to 2nd or 1st gear, though I rarely use
> those since at lower speeds there's generally no need to bother with
> them. In an emergency situation, forcing it to 1st gear would help
> reduce the speed. (But it does take a few seconds before the auto
> transmission kicks in to effect the switch -- and a few extra seconds at
> high speed can be too long in an emergency situation.)

Although commonplace, it is poor practice to use the engine to slow the car down 
(unless you're dealing with brake fade from overheating).

1. Brake pads are cheap compared with engine rebuilds.

2. Using the engine as a brake can cause unburned gas to wash the oil off of the 
cylinder walls, resulting in excessive wear.

3. The engine is not designed to be a brake. Use the brakes. Brake pads are not 
precious :-)


> I think the one time when forcing 1st gear proved useful was when I had
> to drive downhill after a heavy snowstorm -- you do *not* want to go any
> higher in that situation otherwise you could easily lose friction and
> slide down to a nasty crunch at the bottom. (Well, the general advice
> is, don't drive in such conditions in the first place -- but then guys
> like me are often rather foolhardy. :-P)

I prefer a manual trans in slippery conditions - more control.



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