sorry if this topic has been discussed before
occasionally, I shift into the "D3" gear by mistake, wonder how many of you have done it.
I didn't notice and kept on driving on "D3"
will this save gas or give you less power as oppose to drive on "D"

 

it will be more noticeable at highway speeds if you use D3 as the transmission won't use the 4th and 5th gears. This will result in higher engine revving (watch the tach) and will use more gas. The car may feel like it's accelerating faster at these speeds, but at the same time, engine braking will slow it more when you take your foot off the gas.

D3 exists if you are going up (or down) a mountain and want the engine to be limited to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear rather than "searching" for the best of 3rd, 4th, and 5th frequently (although with the grade logic Honda employs this has never annoyed me). ymmv (your mountains may vary).

D3 Doesn't hurt anything; slightly more fuel consumption as the engine will rev higher, but better to be in "D" for normal driving and let the transmission use its full range of gears.

 

there should be no differences when at lower speeds , D3 limits your automatic to the first 3 gears/speeds which are meant for lower speeds and uphill and downhill driving (same for 1 and 2). In D3 at higher speeds you'll be limited to 3rd gear so you'll have higher revs, D allows you to shift into the 4 and 5 gear meant for higher speeds

 

Hi all! New poster here, sorry to rehash an old thread, but someone here may be able to answer a question regarding driving in D3. My mom has just bought a new 2011 Fit base in polished metal metallic, with auto tranny, and she likes it overall. However her previous vehicle was a 2002 Chevy Impala, and as you can imagine, the driving characteristics of the Fit are quite different. Her main complaint regarding the way the Fit drives is what she calls a "constant" shifting of the gears while in D, which it does whenever it encounters a hill, downshifting going down even a slight hill, etc. The gears are obviously much more tightly wound in the Fit than in the Impala, and the car wants to shift at earlier points than the Impala does. So my question is this: At least in around-town driving, would it be OK for her to just keep it in D3 all the time, and eliminate the 4th and 5th gear cycling? My thinking is that eliminating top gear shifting would solve the problem as long as it is OK to drive this way, but there are a couple of questions this brings up-- does the Fit even shift into those top 2 gears in normal around-town driving? And is there a good top speed to tell her to watch if she were to drive it this way, before she needed to shift into D? (Yes she could watch the tach, but she never does, and doesn't really understand what it's for, so it would be easier for me to give her a top speed to watch while driving in D3.) Would it simply be OK to tell her to use D3 around town and shift to D when going over 50, or when getting on the interstate? Thanks in advance for any and all advice!!

 

The recommended shift point for 3-4 on the auto is 40 mph. So that's about what she should cap her speed at to avoid either stressing the tranny or wasting too much fuel. The better answer is to just get used to it or buy a stick or sport model. The fit knows if you are going up a hill and shifts down because of it. And yes, the fit will use all the gears in most town driving (4-5 shift point is around 47 mph).

 

Thx for the reply. My mom does not know how to drive a stick. And she did not want a sport, paddle shifting would just confuse her more. Yes you are correct, as with any car, including her Impala, the Fit knows when it has encountered a hill and downshifts. But when the Impala pulls a hill it downshifts once or twice and stays there, then shifts back up after pulling the hill. The Fit on the other hand tends to shift all over, it downshifts, then upshifts, then runs out of steam in the higher gear and downshifts again, etc. When i drive it, I know how to manipulate the gas pedal to get it not to do that. But she does not, and so I am trying to get her driving experience as close as I can to the Impala without causing too much confusion. My guess is that the shift points she is experiencing this issue the most is from 4-3 and then 3-2, where the car can't decide what gear it should be in and hold it there. Driving in D3 would eliminate at least one of those shift points, so that might solve the problem. But there are definitely times she is driving 40 in the city, s this may not be a feasible solution.
I wish I could show her how to manipulate the gas pedal to eliminate this problem but that can be difficult to teach esp. with the shorter shift points.

 

As a general thing, the fit shifts a lot, imo. But the long and short of it is either you should live with it, or learn to use a car you can shift yourself.

 

The impala has a much larger engine and because of this, it didn't need to drop gears as much in order to maintain speed up a hill. The fit's Singer sewing machine under the hood has little torque and therefore needs to rely on revving the engine to maintain speed.

Likely the problem is that your mom is keeping the vehicle at a speed up those hills that is close [or equal] to the shift point. If the shift point is 40mph for 3-4, and she's keeping the car at 40mph going up the hill, the car will likely shift once she gets above 40mph and then back down once she drops below it. Dropping to D3 would help in this situation but again, would hurt fuel economy a little. chances are she'll also forget to shift back to D when she gets to a more level area.

For her, the solution is likely to get used to it. It's probably not what she wants to hear but there's a tradeoff (and likely always will be) in regards to engine size and torque. This is the nature of small torque-less vehicles, especially in Auto form.

~SB

 

Shift to D3 when she encounters hilly conditions, and leave it in D otherwise would be the best if the hunting bothers her. I'm looking at a CR-V, the push button D3 toggle is actually quite useful for passing, hills, etc. Seems more intuitive than moving the gearshift between D3 and D but the latter should work just as effectively. Having had the "useless to me" paddle shifting auto in the Fit, the D3 button seems to be the best setup for the average slushbox setup, IMO.

Yes the Fit auto hunts between gears when it hits inclines, be it slighter grades on the highway at speeds while on cruise, or when you encounter hilly terrain. The Impala likely had a 4-speed so there's even less hunting as it doesn't have much in the way of gears to choose from.

 

Thanks guys for the responses. That's kind of what I figured--that keeping it in D3 may provide a small solution but would not really be the best thing. I'll tell her the best solution would be to simply get used to it--the benefits outweigh the nuisance of the constant shifting. I am making it sound like she hates the car and she doesn't, she really likes it overall. She was looking for a small economical reliable 4 door hatchback and that is exactly what she got. I am sure some of you are also thinking "well why for the love of pete didn't she test drive it before buying??" Yes she did test drive it, although where she test drove it just happened to be a really flat area. She only got it last weekend, so she hasn't really had a chance to get used to it yet. I am pretty sure once she does it will be a non-issue. Thanks again