What does the L gear in an automatic car mean?
2 Answers
Automatic car's L gear refers to the climbing gear, also known as the low-speed gear. When the vehicle is in L gear, the transmission switches between low gears, specifically between 1st and 2nd gears. This is because climbing requires sufficient torque, and the engine needs enough power to allow the vehicle to ascend the slope. Therefore, this gear is typically selected when low speed and high torque are needed for climbing. When descending a mountain or a long slope, shifting into this gear restricts the car's gear to automatically stay in the lowest gear. This allows the car to use engine braking when going downhill, preventing the danger of brake pads overheating due to prolonged braking by the driver.
As a veteran driver with over a decade of experience driving automatics, I love using L gear for traffic jams and mountain roads. When morning commutes turn into a crawl, shifting to L gear stops the transmission from constantly shifting, making the ride as smooth as sailing. Especially when climbing steep slopes like those in underground garages, engaging L gear makes the engine roar powerfully without any heart-stopping rollback moments. Once, driving a friend's new car through Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan routes, I used L gear for dozens of kilometers of downhill stretches—no brake smoke at all, much easier than constantly tapping brakes. A word of caution: don’t treat L gear like D gear; exceeding 60 km/h could overheat your transmission!