What Does Shifting to Neutral Mean?
2 Answers
Shifting to neutral means the following: 1. Shifting to neutral refers to moving the gear from any of the 1st to 5th gears into neutral while the car is moving or before turning off the engine after parking. This applies to manual transmission vehicles. For automatic transmission vehicles, this concept doesn't exist because although they also have a neutral gear (N), it is not allowed to shift into N while the car is in motion, as it can cause severe damage to the transmission or even render it useless. 2. The term 'coasting in neutral' is now largely outdated. For carburetor-equipped vehicles, shifting to neutral and coasting at any speed did save fuel. However, the trade-off was that without the engine's braking effect from the clutch, the entire burden of deceleration fell on the braking system of all four wheels. If an emergency stop was needed while coasting in neutral, the braking distance would be longer compared to coasting in gear. In other words, fuel savings came at the cost of increased braking risks. 3. Nowadays, the vast majority of vehicles on the road are fuel-injected, meaning the engine's fuel delivery system is fundamentally different from carburetors. The fuel injection system is controlled by the vehicle's onboard computer. When driving a fuel-injected vehicle, coasting in neutral actually consumes more fuel than coasting in gear. A simple and intuitive way to verify this is to set the trip computer to display instantaneous fuel consumption while driving a fuel-injected car. At the same speed, compare coasting in neutral and in gear. Many cars will show fuel consumption close to 0 when coasting in gear, but when coasting in neutral, the consumption will display values ranging from 1.x to 4.x or even higher.
When I first started learning to drive, I didn't understand what shifting into neutral meant. It actually refers to putting the car into neutral gear, where the transmission is not engaged in any gear, and power is not transmitted to the wheels, so the car won't move forward or backward automatically. The operation is simple: for manual transmission cars, just push the gear lever to the middle position; for automatic transmission cars, there is a dedicated N (Neutral) button or position. The advantage is that when stopping at a red light, you can shift into neutral and engage the handbrake, allowing the engine to continue idling. You must also shift into neutral when starting the engine to prevent unexpected movement. However, avoid coasting in neutral while driving, such as going downhill without engine braking, as relying solely on the brakes can lead to overheating and failure, increasing the risk of accidents. New drivers will get the hang of it after a few practices. It's quite frequently used in daily driving and can help reduce wear and tear.
