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jaa101 t1_ja7fnx6 wrote

Car brakes are good enough these days to apply maximum braking force short of locking up in almost any situation. ABS then means you can just stomp on the brakes for the best result. The exception would be if your brakes were failing due to overuse, say on a long steep descent. In that case you should have been changing down gears to use engine braking to prevent the brakes from overheating in the first place. You can do that even with an automatic gearbox. In an emergency stopping situation, even the best driver is going to struggle to shift down fast enough to help, short of real flappy paddle gear changing and/or extremely high speeds.

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racecarthedestroyer t1_ja7x7vu wrote

can you explain how you can engine brake with an automatic?

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RhynoD t1_ja7ynr0 wrote

Pretty much all automatic cars have a "gear" or setting for engine breaking. Even my Prius with a CVT has it: a separate button for Park, then you "shift" to put the car in Drive, Neutral, Reverse, or B for engine Braking. I don't think I've ever needed to use it, but it's there.

Automatics that don't have a CVT may not have a dedicated Engine Braking setting but they should have a forced 1st, 2nd, and/or 3rd gear (or Low and High which is 2nd or 3rd). The computer is locked so that it won't shift higher, which you can use to engine brake.

Finally, there are the "semiautomatic" cars or automatic with a semi setting, where you can "shift" like you're in a manual but the computer and automatic transmission does the actual physical shifting of the gears; they just do the shifting when you say to rather than when the computer wants to.

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Decent_Response_904 t1_ja96iu0 wrote

The flip side of the “sport mode” is if the RPMS stay increased, the car will shift up for you.

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Calcori t1_ja8glec wrote

Something people haven't mentioned is you can also take advantage of cruise control to make your automatic downshift. Turn it on and then use the buttons to decrease the set speed and the car will downshift to help slow down. But this isn't something you'd do to normally come to a stop, more just on long descents to use some engine breaking.

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disruptioncoin t1_jaa1kd5 wrote

I engine brake all the time with my automatic. My honda accord has slappy flaps (paddle shifters). Turns out my transmission is considered an "automated manual" meaning that it's basically a manual but with electro-hydraulically controlled clutches on each gear, controlled by a computer (unless put in sport mode).

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