I think it can be very confusing to explain the explicit auto gear selection in auto cars. Manufacturers label them differently between different brands and models. Some cars with different driving modes (for eg: Sport mode) will also downshift or hold gears when detecting that you're driving downhill. Better to explain it in manual gearbox perspective.

Basically the key is to use engine braking while going down hill, you can do that by engaging low gears all the way or you can actively change it also if you feel like it. You have to understand your own car gear selector on how to engage low gears. Would suggest you to drive in all gear modes and count the number of gears it can shift up to. Eg: "O/D" only shift max until 3rd gear, "L" shift max until 2nd gear, etc.. these can vary a bit by brands and models so best is to try and map these selection to the actual gears.

I do this for all the cars I've owned and change gears "manually" after understanding the actual gear to the labelled gear. Very useful for over taking on highway as well. And pretty fun if you don't mind the risk of your gearbox blowing.. I'm the kind who tend to red line before upshifting.

This post has been edited by RS42: Apr 17 2025, 09:41 PM