Do you ever use a gear selection other than D?

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Vehicles usually have a L or 2nd gear selection. Also you can often turn off the overdrive. Do you ever use these options or just keep it in D (Drive)?

For me I just use D in our vehicles.
 
When I'm driving an automatic and if there is an overdrive I would turn it off as I'm exiting the highway or coast to a red light.

I often go from D and "downshift" to the next if the traffic is stop and go.
 
Used to use L or whatever it might have been called in a particular vehicle for hills in tough winter conditions.
My FXT has an M setting to allow paddle shifting, and I use it a lot in the winter...really nice to be able to use engine braking going down a very slippery slope. I thought it would be fun for sporty/aggressive driving, but the tranny reacts to paddle inputs too slowly (not a problem when I'm going 15mph on ice).
 
Back when I drove my mom's 94 Explorer, I would always keep it in D instead of OD (would only use the first 3 gears and not shift into overdrive), unless I was going on the highway, in which case I shifted into OD as I was climbing the on-ramp. I had read using D uses a stronger part of the transmission or something and it helped the trans last longer. My mom now does the same thing. We must've done something right, as that trans has almost 220k miles on it and never had a problem with it. I never bothered doing that in any other vehicle though.

If I'm towing or carrying something really heavy in my truck, I'll turn the OD off.
 
I use 1 through 5 on the Focus
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If I'm hustling the Outback around I'll put it in Manual mode and use the flappy paddles to downshift for a corner. Also when I get towing I'll probably do some manual shifting through its 7 preset ratios.
 
I use manual mode when I'm on trails, or in the mountains. I'll also lockout 6th sometimes riding around town.
 
Knowing how all of my vehicles react when I step on the gas(WOT), I use the shift lever to drop down a gear or two when I step on it! However, sometime just stepping on the gas(WOT) just doesn't react as quickly as I'd like.

Depending on how quickly I want to pass another vehicle or other situations like, having a bit of fun, I'll play with the shift lever. But, I don't do this regularly.
 
Originally Posted By: JC1
During snowy weather might select 2nd gear for a bit.


This too! ^^^ Especially in an uphill start off on ice.
 
Probably 98% of the time I just stay in "D" on all three of our vehicles. Sometimes if there is a few inches of fresh snow I might drop down a gear or 2 for a short time. Not many steep grades or hills to deal with here in NE.
 
Originally Posted By: exranger06
Back when I drove my mom's 94 Explorer, I would always keep it in D instead of OD (would only use the first 3 gears and not shift into overdrive), unless I was going on the highway, in which case I shifted into OD as I was climbing the on-ramp. I had read using D uses a stronger part of the transmission or something and it helped the trans last longer. My mom now does the same thing. We must've done something right, as that trans has almost 220k miles on it and never had a problem with it. I never bothered doing that in any other vehicle though.

If I'm towing or carrying something really heavy in my truck, I'll turn the OD off.

Forgot to mention, when I drive my Accord to my in-laws house, I'll downshift to 2 as I'm ascending their driveway. Otherwise it tries to shift to up to 3rd gear, then downshifts right back to 2nd as I round a corner. It's easier to just lock it into 2nd.
 
The Rogue is happy to ping up at hill at 1200-1500 rpm, so I have a button on the left side of the selector that is supposedly OD off, but in reality its more at 3500 RPM hold. So the trans varies up and down but the E/TCU holds the rpm to around 3500+/-.

Sometimes I hit this OD OFF instead of braking when approaching a light. I don't want to rev over 3000 at downshift so I hit OD off where it revs up to maybe 2500 or so.
I aint racin I'm just commuting.

At least in this instance
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Only in the truck when I am towing in the mountains. I will take it out of drive and leave it in 3rd to minimize [censored] and keep the torque converter unlocked.
 
I like to use L while going down out of a parking garage, especially when engine is cold and wants to idle at 1500rpm.
L keeps it from shifting to 2 and going 35 mph without any gas pedal input
 
In bad snow I will take the Sonata's transmission out of D and manually select which gear to use.

The Ranger is a manual but I never put it into 5th/Overdrive because the engine doesn't like it.
 
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