Sometimes you need to accelerate immediately to avoid an accident (such as if you look in your rearview mirror and see a teenager on a cell phone coming up on you way too fast). Being in drive instead of neutral could make all the difference here. That’s probably why it’s illegal to coast in neutral in many places.
Thanks, everyone. My wife is celebrating all over the living room as this is the first argument I’m willing to concede to her in our glorious 20 year history. (She thanks you all as well) I will have to modify my goofy, irrational, annoying braking habit. I suppose that was you honking at me yesterday, Mike. I apologize. 
It’s the torque caonverter we’re talking about when saying an automatic ‘‘shifts to neutral’’ while stopped. But still, there’s very little forward pressure to be concerned about.
Oddly , my learning driver tends to shift to neutral while waiting in the drive-up line so she doesn’t have to push on the brake as hard, though it’s never bothered me.
I’m an old farmer, Ken. I drive a variety of machines, frequently semis, and I guess it is just an old habit to shift to neutral any time I stop. Keeps me from having to stand on the clutch for any length of time. It just carries over to operating automatic trannies. The responses to my question were quite interesting and it was certainly kind of everyone to chime in. I’ll probably never be convinced the additional “shock” to the drive train when shifting from neutral to drive is sufficient to override my habit of lazing around red lights in neutral. Except when Mrs. Pedigo is riding shotgun.
That’s not true, Bing. The fluid in the torque converter is more than capable of absorbing the change from N to D. If it isn’t you’d better head to the nearest tranny shop, 'cause you have a serious problem.
yeah but you are not putting in 9.99 all at once, only a penny at a time ,so your calculation is off
Thanks, wesw. I will recalculate.
I’m not going to argue but the torque converter transfers the forward motion to the clutches to the axles to the CV joints to the wheels. Thats how a car goes. Even worse when you go from drive to reverse where any slack is taken up in the drive train.
Bing, the torque converter is a fluid coupling device specifically designed to absorb the engine’s motion at idle without transferring any significant amount to the transmission. It’s like a bagel, cut in half, with vanes added to the inside of each half, and the two sides separated by transmission fluid. The vanes in the front half drag the fluid, the fluid drags the aft half, the aft half being hard-mounted to the transmission input shaft. Torque converter design has become so good at isolating the transmission from the engine at idle that many new cars now will roll backwards if stopped on a slight incline, while the engine continues to idle normally.
To summarize, the torque converter’s very function is to isolate the transmission from the engine when the car is stopped and the engine is idling. There should be no jolt when shifting. If there is, than either the engine is idling too fast or a tranny problem exists.
Mountainbike has just about talked me back into my old habits.
I think bing meant that you can sometimes hit the gas , forgetting you are in neutral, then while the engine is still revved, you throw it in drive to avoid annoying the driver behind you
I think that is exactly what Bing meant. However, some of us not only forget what gear we’re in or not in, but where we’re going, how our turn signal indicator lever functions, the date of our anniversaries, and the names of our grandchildren. There probably should be some kind of law.
Things I need to remember I forget.
Things I understand stay with me forever.
Automatics have clutches that slips when as they engage. Shifting from neutral to drive every time the lights turn green call for an unnecessary clutch slip. Eventually, they’ll wear out and the transmission has to be torn apart. Brake pads are a lot easier to replace-they are outside of the transmission
Maybe I’ve just driven older cars than everyone else, but has no one else ever experienced the clunk on the drive train when put into gear and the slop in the various components is taken up? I understand there are no bells or clanks or metalic sounds but have you never experienced a clunk?
Yep. Clunk…
clunk make grog sad
It’s been many many years since I’ve had an automatic go clunk on me when I shifted it into gear. Not since my '64 Fairlane. And that car had some problems causing an excessive idle speed… the biggest being that it was in North Dakota where the temperatures get well below zero. I’m assuming that the OP isn’t driving a car THAT old.
Let me talk you back out of your old habits. IMHO, the linkage can become a weak “link” as cars get older. Less so with shift by wire, but I do notice as my cars age, the shifter gets a little harder and sticks a little more in some cars, and more easily slips past the natch in others. I also feel that the regardless of all the compensations cars have built in for doing things incorrectly, it isn’t recommended for a variety of reasons. So, you may think it’s reasonable when you digest each point individually but the accumulation of evidence and all manuals…just don’t recommend it. What’s simpler then that ?
Thanks, everyone. I am not convinced. My wife is.