Honda Car Forum

I just bought a 1996 1.4 auto civic, its my first automatic, and i'm not sure how to use the auto box, its got 1, 2, D3, D4 as the forward gears, i've gathered that if i leave it in D4 the whole time it works fine, but how do i use the others, is it safe to change to D3 in motion, and from 1 to 2 while my foot is on the gas and the car is in motion, may sound like a dumbass question, but yesterday was my first time driving auto, after 15 yrs of manual

Put it in D4 unless you're climbing a steep grade or something, then a lower gear (D3) might be necessary.If you're missing your stick you can still pretend by shifting through the gears, but when the transmission is ready to shift, it'll do it on its own.The difference between D4 and D3 is that your vehicle probably has some sort of overdrive system on it, meaning that you'll get better gas mileage in D4 (overdrive) than D3.

there is no need to change the gears on an auto car thats why its auto. The others are for when you need them personally I drive an auto now and have never used anything but D for drive.

leave it in D4 unless you are descending a steep gradient when you can dowshift for engine braking. One of the advantages of modern automatics is they wont let down shift too far - if you were travelling at 50 mph and decided to shift into 1 the box would only go down to 3 or maybe 2 until the car had slowed down sufficiently. I love auto transmission but find I only need Park Reverse and D4 - let the gearbox do its own shifting, it is most unlikely you will improve on it.

its safe to shift while in motion and with the foot down. shift to a lower gear when you need to speed up or haul.

shifting into other D's while on the gas in an automatic transmission is extremely bad for the transmission. Dont do it period. Thats why its an automatic