Learning to Drive an Automatic Car

If you are just getting your license, you will likely be interested in learning to drive an automatic car. Automatic cars make up a huge percentage of the car market today. Even pick-up trucks and sports cars are now produced with automatic transmissions, an idea that would have seemed ridiculous just a few years ago. This increase in popularity is the result of both improvements in the performance of automatic transmissions and because standard transmissions are much more difficult to drive. In fact, the only cars that come with standard transmissions these days are budget sub-compacts and high-end sports cars. This article will prepare you for learning to drive an automatic car.

Before you set out to start learning to drive your automatic car, you should take a moment to acknowledge that you actually have it quite easy. Trying to learn how to drive a standard transmission is a much, much more involved process. You have to coordinate both feet and both hands to do different things simultaneously, which is a process that can cause extreme anxiety for many new drivers. Driving an automatic car is nowhere near as complicated; if you can drive a golf cart, you can drive an automatic car. Here are the basic steps to getting the task accomplished.

Before you start the car for the first time, take a second to see what you're going to be dealing with in terms of controls. Start with your feet. In an automatic car, there are only two pedals. The pedal on the right is the gas, and the wider one on the left is the brake. Press on them a bit with your right foot to get an idea for how they feel. Now look at your hands. The steering wheel is obviously right in front of you, but take a second to find the turn signal and the windshield wipers. They are often on the right of the steering wheel, but depending on the make of your car, they might be on the left. Now find the shifter. You will likely see several letters and numbers running down the side of the shifter. The one on the top is labeled P for park. If the car is off, this is where the shifter will be. The next one down is R for reverse followed by N for neutral and D for drive. Depending on the car, there may be a few numbers (1, 2,and maybe 3) below the D. These are there so you can manually put the car in a lower gear if you need to. For your purposes, D and R will suffice for ninety percent of your driving needs.

In order to start the car for the first time, two things need to happen. First, the car must be in park and you must have your foot on the brake. You should get used to using only your right foot for both the brake and the gas. This is so you don't get in the habit of riding the brake, which means that you rest your foot on the brake pedal even when you are not stopping. Riding the brake is a great way to wear out your brakes early, and you shouldn't do it. So, with your right foot on the brake and the car in park, turn the key and start the car.

Hopefully, for your maiden voyage you have selected a nice quite place to get used to your car. It's probably common sense to most people, but when learning to drive an automatic car, it's best to not pull out into rush hour downtown traffic before you know what you're doing. Keep it slow and simple until you build your skills and confidence. With your foot still on the brake, move the car's shifter down to D. There will be a button somewhere on the shifter that you will need to press in order to move the shifter out of P. Once the car is in D, slowly release the brake. You will feel the car start to move even if you don't have your foot on the gas. This is because the car is in gear and is ready to go. Go ahead and press down slowly on the gas to speed up. Your car will automatically shift through the gears as you speed up.

To slow down, you just need to press down on the brake with your right foot. Even though the car is in gear, you will have no trouble slowing it down. Getting used to how much pressure to apply with the brake comes with practice. You want to make sure you apply enough to slow the car down in time to stop where you need it to, but you want to avoid slamming on the brakes unless you're in a serious situation and need to stop suddenly.

Now you understand the basics for how an automatic transmission operates and are ready to hit the open road. Make sure you buckle up, and don't do anything fancy like trying to send a text message while you're driving. Even though automatic cars are easy to drive, they still require a lot of concentration to minimize the risk of an accident.

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