There's drive and reverse and all but what are 3 2 and 1 for?
2006-06-07 16:32:18 · 6 answers · asked by little_miss_oregon 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Car Makes ➔ BMW
Gears 3,2, and 1 for your shift lever are to gear control your car. There are times when a lower gear would be most beneficial particularly in ice or snow 2nd or 3rd gear to keep the wheels from torquing and spinning in the snow. Other applications of 1,2, 3 gears are when climbing a hill or towing. You will sometimes need these lower gears to pull the car steadily forward and upward.
2006-06-14 08:42:58 · answer #1 · answered by nederlander 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When you're descending a hill, you can use the gears to slow the car, so you don't have to ride the brake. It's called engine braking. It really only applies to long, steep hills - if you're constantly on the brakes, they tend to overheat, become mushy, or fail entirely. Simply shifting into 3rd (or 2nd or 1st for really steep hills) will slow you enough to stay off the brake pedal. It's not bad for the engine, and really good for your fuel economy. You'll hear the engine running a little higher than usual, but that's normal. Just make sure to shift back into Drive after the hill.
Don't use them for ascending hills, as was mentioned - the transmission will select the best gear for you (after all, that's what it's there to do).
In an automatic, the 3, 2, 1 allow you to lock the transmission out at that gear (without those settings, as you roll down the hill, the transmission would keep upshifting). Newer automatics (for BMW Steptronic) allow the driver to upshift and downshift, so there is no longer a need for the 3, 2, 1 (the driver can just shift into 1st, 2nd, or 3rd as they desire).
2006-06-08 10:16:37 · answer #2 · answered by M3Owner 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the gears 12&3 are just your lower gear which you don't have to worry about, because when you take off in drive you would notice that the car will shift from drive 1 2 & 3 on up to D it is an automatic I assume.
2006-06-07 23:41:13 · answer #3 · answered by milosteel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm assuming you car has a manual Transmission. If so 1st is for starting off, 2nd for continued acceleration, and 3rd for cruising (in other words steady driving).
If you car has an Automatic Transmission, the simply put it in Drive. 1st and 2nd are ONLY to be used under extreme conditions where the engine would labor in Drive (i.e., very steep Hills). Rarely would you manually shift an Automatic Transmission vehicle into the lower gears otherwise.
2006-06-07 23:41:32 · answer #4 · answered by Ben D 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In your auto trans, D allows it to shift from 1-2-3-4, whereas 3 shifts 1-2-3, 2 shifts 1-2 and 1 only shifts into 1. Normally 3 or 2 or 1 is only selected during hill climb or descent or during towing.
You can also select 3 from D during driving to downshift manually
2006-06-08 03:43:35 · answer #5 · answered by KCT 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If u r in a situation where u can't have drive u can shift to 3,2 or 1 to have more power to put the car in motion
2006-06-13 21:25:41 · answer #6 · answered by m25m24 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋