I've fairly recently sold my manual 525i and bought an automatic Mitsubishi Galant. Only when I'd had it a week or so did I notice that it had a kickdown button. Now I've driven quite a few automatics and I've never noticed this on any others. Maybe I'm really unobservant, I dunno.
Basically, this button sits under the accelerator pedal and when pressed it shifts the car down a gear (as long as you're not going to break the rev limit by doing so). Basically, it means that if you're overtaking or you want a boost of power and the gearbox doesn't kickdown when you want it to, you can force the issue by pressing the accelerator a bit harder (you're aware you're doing it) which hits this button and gives you a lower gear.
Do all automatics do this? Have I been missing out on all the others I've driven? It's one of the handiest things I've ever seen in a car.
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Yes. Well, nearly all of them, anyway. But it's much more agressive than manually shifting down.
HJ
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Well that's good to know, because otherwise I'd have to keep this car for the rest of my life. I couldn't do without it now... I'm too used to it being there.
I really had no idea. It's right up there with "gazpacho soup" as one of the things they should just take you aside and tell you one day.
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Is this different to the kickdown when you slam the accelerator into the floor on an automatic?
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Adam
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Yes. It will kick down automatically when it needs to. If it senses you press the accelerator it'll change down. However, sometimes if you're already over 3000RPM it'll decide not to - but there are circumstances where you could do with 4-5000RPM for a manouvre. That's what the kickdown button seems to be for. It forces a kickdown when the gearbox has decided that it doesn't need to. Presumably this is in absence of a "sport" mode or something.
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Ahhh. And they say automatics are easier ;-)
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Adam
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Ah, but it's a doddle to use. Instinctively, what do you do when your foot's on the floor but you want more speed? You press the accelerator harder. And in this case, it actually serves a purpose.
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In my old 605 if the pedal actually touched the contact point on the kickdown it dropped down by two gears (conditions permitting). Of course more often than not, the car mat would work it?s way under the gas pedal and that extra woomph never came.
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"It forces a kickdown when the gearbox has decided that it doesn't need to. Presumably this is in absence of a "sport" mode or something."
Sport mode as well as kick-down on my auto.....Sport-mode tends to keep the revs up longer...so up changes are later and changes-down are sooner.
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"sporty" button viscious kickdown (usually 2gears all the way to the redline) and a little button for overdrive on the avensis . autos can be fun (not exciting but still fun)...cheers...keo.
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On my Astra, with the gearbox in sports mode, pushing this button dropped two gears. Very useful for overtaking, though often left you wondering if you'd broken something afterwards...
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My A3 DSG has a similar button under the accelerator. Normal kick down will drop one gear, press the pedal further and it will drop another cog - I don't use it much as a double kick down increases the revs to about 4,000 which is pointless in a car which accelerates strongest with revs at 3-3500.
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My A3 DSG has a similar button under the accelerator. Normal kick down will drop one gear, press the pedal further and it will drop another cog - I don't use it much as a double kick down increases the revs to about 4,000 which is pointless in a car which accelerates strongest with revs at 3-3500.
Yep - that pretty much describes what my Galant does. The power isn't really available until 3000rpm and it's best around 4-4500 so the button comes in handy from time to time.
Incidentally, having driven the following automatics in my time, I've never noticed one of these buttons before, either through my own inobservance or through it not being there:
Mercedes C180, Honda Civic, Toyota Tercel, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, Toyota Solara, Chrysler Grand Voyager, Chevy Cavalier, Ford Taurus, Ford Mustang, Hyundai Sonata and *another* Mitsubishi Galant
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How do you find the rest of the car? i was looking at these recently as you can get so much car for your money and they seem extremely well built and reliable. Great looks too.
In the end i went for a honda accord (2000 model) and don't regret it.
Glad you are enjoying it!
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How do you find the rest of the car? i was looking at these recently as you can get so much car for your money and they seem extremely well built and reliable. Great looks too. In the end i went for a honda accord (2000 model) and don't regret it. Glad you are enjoying it!
I love it. I went for the V6-24 which was quite a bit more expensive than the equivalent year GLS (like twice as much) but you get a lovely V6, loads of toys, climate, leather, cruise etc etc. It's got a very smooth ride, it's very refined but there's plenty of power there when you want it.
Things that have irritated me so far:
(1) It's been scratched twice since I've had it - once by a key-wielding vandal and once when it was in a high street tyre/exhaust fitting centre - hardly the car's fault
(2) Parts can take some sourcing due to the rarity of the car - that's the one thing that makes me curse myself for not getting a Mondectra
(3) When you're outside the car you need the key to open the boot - irritating when you've already popped the remote locking
(4) It doesn't handle as well as my old 525i - but then what would? It does ok.
On the whole, I've been really happy with it. I considered an Accord too, but I felt there were a few too many of them about - for some reason I wanted a really rare car - I am a fool sometimes. I considered a Mazda Xedos too but I was put off by them being a bit long in the tooth now, and the fact that the paint job is roasted on to the car - looks great but try getting Chipsaway to match that.
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Some Mercedes have a 2 stage kickdown, first stage will cause the gearbox to change down 1 gear, second stage will change down 2 gears - you can feel the 2 stage switch under the accelerator. There is also an inhibitor to prevent the gearbox changing down when the car is cornering to prevent brown trouser moments in the wet or on snow. Strangest of all, when driving at high speed with the cruise control engaged, the car changes down a gear if necessary to maintain speed.
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I assumed the gear-changing thing was common to all cars with cruise - the cruse control sets the speed and the gearbox does what it needs to in order to maintain that speed.
Is there such thing as cruise control on a manual car?
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"Is there such thing as cruise control on a manual car? "
There certainly is :-)
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And air conditioning.
And metallic paint and..............
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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So what happens when you've got it set to a top gear speed (let's say 70) and you hit a hill that requires a change-down - you just have to take over from the cruise?
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The cruise just cuts out in those circumstances, or at least it used to on my Mondeo.
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Guess it vary..... but on the Beemers a gear change will automatically disengage the cr/control.
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A manual car with CC will have a switch on the clutch and brake pedal. Should either pedal be pressed, the CC disengages. An auto will only have the switch on the brake pedal and will obviously disengage when pressed. It will also disengage the CC when knocked out of D into N. I'm not sure if this applies to other autos, but if I move the gearlever in my auto Vectra over into manual mode I can change up and down the gears and the CC remeins enabled.
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In reply to Bagpuss:
I don't think this applies to W203 - mine doesn't. I have seen it drop a few mph when climbing.
What is also very strange is that my 318i (manual) will keep to a CC constant speed (above 40mph) no matter what (within reason of course).
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The CC on my honda accord (manual) does the same. When going up or down a hill when engaged, you can feel the car adjusting acceleration to compensate.
I had never really thought CC was that useful or practical in this country, but i use it regularly on mootrways now.
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It's only when you have your CC on that you really notice how much other drivers vary their speed. On countless occasions I've had my cruise set to a constant speed and found myself overtaking the same car several times on a journey, only to be overtaken back. Not as part of some game, but just through the course of another driver changing their speed so much.
Cruise is so much handier than I expected it to be in Britain - largely I suppose due to the ability to cancel and then either set the cruise at the current speed or resume back to the previous speed. I still find it a little unnerving when the car automatically ups the power to cope with a hill though.
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Back to topic - on some cars, the kickdown button also cuts the air conditioning and other large power-sapping items to ensure that maximum engine power is available for overtaking.
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HJ wrote above that the kickdown is aggressive.
Personally I have always found the ckickdown to be somewhat sluggish, and prefer using manual selection of a lower gear as the result is more prompt. I was inspired to do this by a thread about 15 months ago.
This may be a reflection of driving late 1980s or 1970s technology - my autobox experience being limited to W123 Mercs and an Audi 100.
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HJ wrote above that the kickdown is aggressive. Personally I have always found the ckickdown to be somewhat sluggish, and prefer using manual selection of a lower gear as the result is more prompt. I was inspired to do this by a thread about 15 months ago. This may be a reflection of driving late 1980s or 1970s technology - my autobox experience being limited to W123 Mercs and an Audi 100.
In some cars kickdown can be very agressive - I suppose the main factor is going to be how much power you have at your disposal.
My (ex)Omega 3.0 was certainly quite agressive if "full" kickdown was used, especially if in the box was in sport mode.
Incidentally, if CC was in use and you used the "resume" function after slowing (considerably), it would use kickdown to accelerate very agressively back to the set speed.
My (ex) 3.5l 5 series, though not as agressive as the Omega, was pretty quick on kickdown too.
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