Does she not believe that this is bad or does she not care that she’s causing damage? It makes a difference.
When she backs up, does she come to a complete stop before shifting into Drive? Not coming to a complete stop does more damage than what you’re describing.
BrianD–
Your wife will never believe you. An expert is someone outside the family and from another town. If your wife is liberal, maybe you could, for a campaign contribution, get Nancy Pelosi to write her a letter telling her that what she is doing is hard on the car. If your wife is conservative, a similar letter from Sarah Palin may just to the trick.
We are just hearing one side of the story…shifting into drive at 1300 rpm just isn’t all that bad to me…
Goldwing - when changing from reverse to drive, or drive to reverse as in a parking or three point turn, the stops the car, but lets her foot off the brake before the D or R gear fully engages.
That shouldn’t hurt, if the car’s at a full stop.
Triedaq, I’d Have Never Believed It Possible In My Lifetime, But If You Haven’t Read The News Lately, Politicians Are Actually Losing Credibilty. Perhaps A Letter From A Soap Star Or Musician Would Do It.
CSA
I have been married for 43 years. My husband has a few bad habits that nothing I say will change.
He would not down shift into any gear except neutral. There is no reason to. We switched to automatics when airbags became standard equipment. Now he backs out of the garage onto the street and immediately goes into drive, before the car has finished moving. He does not do this when anyone else is in the car.
Yes Nora, that’s a bad practice. But, as I mentioned before, people rarely accept advice that they themselves didn’t solicit. Show him this thread if you’d like, but realize that a good marriage is far more important than your car’s longevity. A broken car can be repaired, a broken marriage cannot.
Sincere best.
Just for fun I shifted my car into drive at 1300 rpm, and noticed a minor ‘bump’. Like I said, not a big issue.
Maybe she should get together with my wife. She starts the car and then starts adjusting the seat/mirror, put the belt on etc. In hot CA there is no warm up needed and she is wasting gas. I just watch it after so many times of having the same discussion.
Of all the autos that I’ve driven, they’ve all reved to 1,500 rpm when started cold. I’ve shifted all of them to D as soon as it started. None of them suffered any damage as a result of that. My own car didn’t drop its idle to 900 until I drove it for a mile or so.
The engine mount on that Saab was replaced under warranty because it was defective in such a way that it couldn’t handle what it was designed to do. If the next one failed, then it probably wasn’t designed properly and I would unload that car.
cigroller July 27
I know what you are talking about. Either Google for OCD, or come to rural Mexico and let me introduce my wife of 36 years, hee, hee.
My wife also writes on bed sheets, to tell me which end goes where, because I can’t see any difference from one end to the other. The little rug that goes on the floor in front of the bathtub, ditto. Lots more stuff like that.
Guess who gets the honor of making the bed???