Can the car be turned off without shifting to P gear?
2 Answers
No, the car cannot be turned off without shifting to P gear. The consequences of turning off an automatic transmission car without shifting to P gear are engine damage and the inability to remove the key. The key can only be removed and the engine turned off after shifting back to P gear. The P gear in an automatic transmission is also called the parking gear or starting gear. When the car is parked with the gear in this position, the wheels are mechanically locked to prevent rolling. It uses a mechanical device to lock the rotating parts of the car, preventing movement. When the car needs to stay in a fixed position for a long time, after parking, the handbrake should be engaged and the gear lever should be pushed into the P position before leaving the vehicle. Both P gear and N gear are neutral gears, but the difference is: P gear has a mechanical braking device, so the car will not move once the gear grooves in the transmission are locked by the pawl; N gear itself does not have any wheel locking device, requiring the use of the handbrake or brake pedal to lock the wheels.
Once when I was driving my friend's new SUV, I turned off the ignition while still in D gear out of habit when getting out of the car. The vehicle suddenly shook violently and beeped an alarm, which gave me quite a scare. Actually, most modern automatic transmission vehicles allow forced engine shutdown, but alarms will trigger if not in P gear. This is because the transmission parking pawl hasn't engaged with the gear slot. If parked on a slope in this condition, the vehicle could roll. I once saw at a repair shop where a customer's car rolled half a meter after being shut down in N gear, hitting a tool rack. So even if manufacturers design vehicles to allow shutdown in non-P gears, it's best to develop the habit of shifting to P gear, engaging the parking brake, and then turning off the ignition - this protects both the transmission gears and parking lock mechanism.
