Quote:
Originally Posted by mdm
And rolling slowly in 1st is hard to be done smoothly as there is huge engine braking effect, so when you lift your foot the car may become jerky.
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I don't have this problem. Must be operator error.
I often end up in stop and go traffic that is moving too slowly for second gear, so I downshift to first and creep along at 1000 to 1200 RPM. The car will let you do it smoothly as long as your accelerator foot isn't spastic. I try to find the average speed of the traffic so that I don't actually have to alternately slam the accelerator and brake like the douches around me who are hell bent on keeping anyone from getting in front of them.
At low speeds this car--or perhaps the driver of this car--is susceptible to a phenomenon called
pilot induced oscillation. PIO is an aircraft term in which the pilot (or driver in our case) fails to anticipate how the craft will react to an input and then overcompensates in the other direction. The operator repeats these poorly timed inputs in phase with the vehicle's reaction, and the vehicle's reaction feeds off the inputs as well until the vehicle is bucking around like a bull. You think it's the car that's jerky, but it's not. It's the driver. This problem is worst in situations where small operator inputs make relatively large changes, like moving the pedal at very slow speeds. To put it in plain language, you push the gas pedal ever so slightly too hard, the car takes off too fast, you let off the gas pedal too much, engine braking tries to stop the car and stall, you hit the gas again, etc. until you finally give up, clutch in and coast instead.
But you don't have to do that. If you know what the car is going to do, you can use smoother inputs and glide right through the car's tendency to oscillate. The car will allow very fine input to the accelerator if you don't try to riverdance on the pedals. It just takes some patience to learn the finesse.