My daughter just got a new to her car today.. When should she use the overdrive?

Question

My daughter wants to know when she should be in drive and overdrive? Whats the difference?

Answer 1

Overdrive is the highest gear in transmission. It makes your engine go at a lower rpm for any given speed. This gives you a better fuel efficiency and quieter operation.

Lets say that you put it in drive and take it on freeway, then you are forcing the engine to rotate at high speed as you are restricting the transmission to use a gear lower than overdrive. This in turn takes lot of fuel and noisier operation. So choose Overdrive here.

Also you need to turn it to Drive when driving in mountainous region. By this you will prevent "Gear Hunting". Gear hunting is more common among all cars except some japanese cars.
Gear hunting is basically toggling between lower and higher gears when driving in mountains.

1.Normal condition - Overdrive
2.Freeways - Overdrive
3.Mountains - Drive

Hope this answers your question!
If there is anything specific in the operation manual, then it overrides my answer.

Answer 2

Overdrive is like a higher gear. If the car has a 3-speed transmission with overdrive, the overdrive is basically a 4th speed. It's great for the highway, because it lets the car get better mileage.

Check the owner's manual for details, but if she probably can put the shifter into overdrive and leave it there. The transmission will shift to the gear it needs for around town, highway driving, etc. The only time she should NOT use overdrive is if she is towing a trailer, carrying a heavy load, or has a car-top carrier on top. These require a lot more power, and can cause the transmission to overheat. There's nothing that will ruin a transmission faster than overheating.

Answer 3

Overdrive in todays cars are totally different than when it was first introduced. The only time it might not be a good idea is when pulling a trailer at high speed

Answer 4

Typically just leave it in Overdrive. It will only shift into it when it reaches a certain speed. If you put it in drive and forget to put it in OD and get on the highway, you'll use more gas. If you're going up and down a lot of hills, then put it in drive, otherwise just leave in OD Congrats on the new car.

Answer 5

If she isn't trying to race the car, she should leave it in Overdrive. Only time a typical driver would need to disable Overdrive is when you are climbing hills, and need an extra kick (i.e automatic downshift) getting up the hill.

Just tell her to "leave it enabled at all times, it saves gas."

Answer 6

i own a repair shop,and drive is for around town ,where speeds don't reach over 45-50 miles per hour,and over drive is for the open road and the interstate driving,,if drove in over drive a lot in the city it makes the transmission shift back and forth from 3rd gear to 4th gear and it goes back and forth ,and is hard on a good transmission,it would be the best to drive it in drive around town,it will not put a strain on it this way ,good luck with it,i hope this help.s.

Answer 7

Always use OD. the D is for if you are pulling a trailor or otherwise working the car hard (snowstorm or such) the car knows when to shift. the darn things are smarter than we are anymore. so, o.k. you're just going down the block. so what? the car knows.

Answer 8

any time she is going to be over 45 mph is good. however depending on the car...it will choose the gear for her...tell her to just put it in the drive gear and let the car do the work for her. :)

Answer 9

highway miles are good for overdrive