My kid’s just finished the classroom part of driver education and it prompted a discussion of crazy things we’ve seen other drivers do.
The craziest thing I saw, many years ago now, was I came up behind a guy driving a Ford Ranger pickup and could see through his rear window that he was doing tricep extensions with a dumbbell in his right hand. I was more surprised as I passed to see he was shaving with an electric razor in his left hand. I don’t really know how he was steering.
Kiddo said they were told personal grooming was the fourth leading cause of accidents.
Yep, you want to do engine braking. That’s when you downshift and the engine slows the car. Even with an automatic transmission, you can downshift to 2nd so long as you’re under 50mph or so. You want to be slower than 20 before shifting down to 1st gear.
If you ever have a chance to drive up Pikes Peak in Colorado, 1) it’s gorgeous and 2) they have a stop halfway down where park rangers will check your brake temps with an IR thermometer. If you’re too hot, they make you sit there in your car for a while for the brakes to cool off and they give you tips on engine braking. Lots of flatlanders driving in the mountains for the first time and learning lessons the hard way.
Wow that’s crazy. You have taught me a valuable and potentially a life saving lesson today. I really appreciate your knowledge here.
So I have an automatic so how do I keep it under 50 or 20 without using the breaks?
My dodge will engine brake if I use the cruise control. Down near the bottom (or far side) of your shifter you should have a low gear that isn’t first. You can shift into it under 50 and let off the gas, your car should slow down. Test it’s rpm range on some flat ground first by accelerating to around 50… On the mountain is not where you want to first try it.
At minimum, shift out of overdrive into regular drive.
I have a versa so I’ll have to take a look at that later