Automatic driving

[paulca]

So I finally have to drive an auto car, first time in my life. Eugh! It's horrible at first, but it's growing on me... a little.

So I had a bump in the GT, little 83 yo woman ran a red light, darted across in front of me from a side road at zero range, BUMP. Cracked and stoved in bumper, crumpled right front wing, cracked headlight. My poor car. Worst is she is claiming not to have ran the red and the insurance are offering me a 50/50 claim as it's my word against hers! I'm not giving up yet though.

Dropped the car in yesterday for repair and got handed the keys to the "equivalent" hire car (rental). Walked out, Audi A4 S-Line, 2.0TDI.

Firstly my foot was hunting for the clutch and wasn't finding it, then I noticed on the dash it said, "When stationary, press the foot brake before moving the gear selector." I was like, "What?", then I looked at the gear knob and thought, "Aww what?"

So here I am, never driven an auto before, it's dark, pouring rain, in a completely alien part of town, in rush hour, trying to work out how to drive it.

Obviously it's easy, press the GO pedal or the SLOW pedal. But there is more to it, as I found out. Like when gently braking in stop and go traffic, the engine downshifts and you get off the brake as the engine braking is too much, but the car behind nearly rear ends you as you have no brake lights on. Then as it comes down to walking pace it starts pushing on forward and you have to apply more and more brake to stop the thing. God I so wanted a clutch that night coming home!

Then there was a hill and traffic stopped and I realised for a moment I had no idea what you are meant to do, but luckily all I had to do was let go of the brake and off it went up the hill, no roll back, hill assist.

But, yes, you get used to it, time your braking differently, learn to ride the brake enough to keep the brake light on while it's engine braking etc.

I have caught myself trying to push the brake pedal to the floor with my left foot at traffic lights only to roll my eyes at myself and tut. Thankfully not when moving with a car behind!

Still going from a GT86 to an Audi A4 is like going from a fighter jet to a barge! It's not a bad audi, most people are impressed that I got it as a hire car. It's quick in a rather emotionless/souless executive-barge like kind of way. It has sport mode and triptronic mode (no paddles that I've found), but it's vague, throttle is slow (diesel), steering is slow (not a sports car) and when it does go the front end tries to go sideways due to horrendous torque steer.

It's also huge by my standards, biggest car I have driven, definitely the longest, longer than my parking space at home!

I want my GT back!

[Dadhawk]

Just so you know, your experience in this auto is NOT the same experience you would have in the GT auto. The 86 has a much better AT in it, although it does do many of the "automatic" things you mention that would throw you off.

Even in manual mode, the one thing that would throw you off is the shifting. In an auto (at least the 86) you don't let off the gas when changing gears. You keep it to the floor and hit the paddles, or the shift, right before redlining. That was the hardest thing for me to get used to since I never really drove other ATs in manual mode as it was a useless endeavor.

[serialk11r]

The "crawl" function on most autos is the most disturbing thing for me. They program it into SMG and DCTs too...why in the world is that a good idea? I can't understand why you'd want the car to start rolling forward once you take your foot off the brake. That seems like something you'd want the car to do when you know, you press the gas?

[Nevermore]

I don't think idle creep is programmed in. The car remains linked to the transmission even at a stop, so the RPMs that it requires to keep the engine running are enough to spin the wheels.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by Nevermore

I don't think idle creep is programmed in. The car remains linked to the transmission even at a stop, so the RPMs that it requires to keep the engine running are enough to spin the wheels.

I was talking about non-torque-converter transmissions, which can fully disengage the clutch. I observed a Porsche PDK doing the following:

1. Clutch always engaged except with coast function (which never turns on if you're not using the manual shift despite their claims) and when at a full stop with brake pressed.

2. Clutch is only barely engaged when rolling, it slips a lot and you need to give it gas to maintain speed at idle in 1st gear

3. Clutch only has just enough pressure to prevent slippage once you're going, pressing the gas will cause it to slip momentarily.

4. Pressing gas will automatically engage the clutch even if you're at a dead stop.

Basically it kind of emulates a torque converter except when your foot is firmly on the brake pedal.

[dtrop]

I honestly think you're over analyzing driving an automatic....