Date:         Fri, 11 Sep 2015 08:21:11 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Automatic vs Manual trans. ( Friday )
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    Over the past year I have 'learned to drive' an automatic transmission
vehicle.   I've always chosen a manual transmission vehicle.   Never liked
having the car or truck shifting for me...but I needed a van with AWD for
work and winter, so I picked up a GM Safari van inexpensively, and most ot
these are automatic transmission vehicles..
    When I began with this van, I hated it, the way it 'surged forward' in
response to a slight touch of the accelerator....the way it 'cycled' back
and forth as I climbed a long steep grade with a load...the way it has a
sense of "un-connected-ness" between coasting and holding a steady speed or
climbing....the lack of 'feel" as you negotiate rough terrain or try to get
going on ice....no ability to 'slip the clutch'... the Safari is just a
regular automatic transmission, no worse than some, no better...
     So,..... I LIKE driving.   It is one of my passions, I often do it
just for fun...but I've never owned an automatic transmission vehicle
before this one.   Hence, I realized that I needed to learn some new
driving techniques.   As my Safari seat-time builds so does my ability to
"work around" the constraints of an automatic transmission:...I've learned
to modulate the gas pedal to help control 'stupid' shifting, brake and gas
at the same time for slow speed parking lot maneuvers, influence the
automatic transmission to behave as closely as possible to the way I want
it to...
      It still bugs me when the transmission 'insists' on behaving like the
engineers designed it to rather than how I would like, but lately I've
become much better at getting it to behave, within it's design parameters,
the way I'd like it to...
     It never occurred to me than I should need to learn how to drive an
automatic...Like most folks, I just thought you jumped in and mashed the
gas and let the vehicle do it's thing....but now I know I can actually make
the thing go smoother and better with my newly learned automatic
transmission driving skills....Driving it with skill also enhances the fuel
economy some....It IS convenient to drive if I get caught on Interstate 5
in one of the Portland traffic snarls.