Should You Turn Off the Engine or Shift to P Gear First When Parking an Automatic Transmission Car?

[JosiahAnn]

When parking an automatic transmission car, you should first shift to P gear and then turn off the engine. This is done for safety reasons, to prevent the owner from forgetting to shift to P gear. Here is more information about the P gear: 1. In fact, the P gear is similar to the N gear, except that when shifting to P gear, a pawl in the transmission locks the output shaft of the transmission, preventing the vehicle from moving. If you park on a slope and forget to shift to P gear before turning off the engine, the vehicle may move due to inertia, which can easily lead to danger. 2. One important thing to note is that you must engage the handbrake before shifting to P gear. Only the handbrake can truly prevent the car from moving. The role of the P gear is similar to shifting to first gear in a manual transmission car to prevent rolling.