Should You Shift to Neutral or Engage the Handbrake First When Parking an Automatic Transmission Car?

[SanCaroline]

When parking an automatic transmission car, you should engage the handbrake first and then shift to neutral. Here are some parking precautions: 1. Shift to N gear when waiting at a red light, not D gear while stepping on the brake: Many people keep the gear in D and step on the brake when waiting at a red light or in traffic jams for convenience. In fact, this is incorrect. Firstly, it increases fuel consumption, and more importantly, if a rear-end collision occurs and the car is impacted forward, having the gear in D can easily damage the transmission. Therefore, if the wait at a traffic light is long, shift to N gear and engage the handbrake, which not only saves fuel but also allows you to rest your foot. 2. Do not keep pressing the accelerator when accelerating to overtake: If you keep pressing the accelerator without releasing it, the car’s downshift will be sluggish. The correct approach is to press the accelerator to raise the RPM to between 2000 and 2500, then briefly release the accelerator. At this point, you will notice the car’s gear drops. If the car has an S gear, it’s even simpler—just shift to S gear when overtaking, and the transmission will respond much more sensitively, resulting in faster acceleration.