this isn't supposed to be the hard part about driving

[cellio]

Every time I drive Dani's car (a rare occurrence) I am reminded that driving an automatic transmission requires specific skills that I apparently haven't learned. I assume there's a trick to accelerating -- that you can regulate the gas flow (via the gas pedal) to kick the gears in when you want them to -- but I'm afraid I will be forever reaching for the clutch pedal and shifter while driving. :-) This has happened with multiple cars, so it's probably me and not the car.

(We're going to his company's winter party after work, I'd rather he drive home in the dark with the predicted sleet, and he's not cleared for my manual transmission. So since he takes the bus to work anyway, I just took his car today.)

Comments

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

My parents had an automatic minivan that I was okay with until they did a computer update. After that it would try to slip 3rd when I made left turns in front of traffic. It made me nervous a couple of times when it felt like the van was just sitting there while cars were bearing down on me. I'd end up stomping on the gas peddle to force it to downshift and it would then jump to life. None of my other family members noticed this behavior or really believed me. I don't know if there was some trick that I was unconsciously failing to do or not. Somehow I've never had that problem with my manual transmission Civic. :)