Steve said:
Your friend has a VERY bad and illegal (in most states) habit. Coasting
is not legal in any state and means you have much less control of the
vehicle. For instance your friend is coasting to a stop, from behind him
a car doesn't notice the stop sign/light. Your friend looks in the
mirror and sees this, what can he do? With the car in gear he could give
it a little gas and then stop at the sign, or move to the side and get
out of the way. With the car in neutral he loses that option because
there is no way to accelerate. Now take another example. Your pal is
cruising down the highway and decides to put it in neutral since
everything is cool. A vehicle decides he is going a little slow and
starts to pass him. When the vehicle is right next to your pals rear
tire a car coming the other way doesn't notice this and decides to pass.
What can your friend do. 1 step on the brake and pray that the car next
to him gets by and clears him. 2. step on the gas and move ahead of the
passing car allowing it to drop behind him and avoid the accident, OOPS
can't do that because his car is in neutral. Oh and if your friend ever
has a blow out or a parts failure when he is coasting in neutral, good
luck, without the engine providing power the loss of control will be fun
to watch.
I for one hope he learns his way out of this habit BEFORE you have to
visit the morgue to ID the body.
Yeah and he could be struck by lightning while being abducted by aliens,
too! ;-)
Let's be realistic. It takes at most a couple of tenths of a second to
pop a car back in gear, especially for someone who does it all the time.
Being in neutral doesn't compromise one's ability to steer, so pulling
over is always an option.
While I agree with you that putting the car in neutral on the highway is
pointless, please explain exactly how a being in neutral is going to
make any difference in the event of a blowout. The most common reaction
in such an event is to hit the brakes. Most people who drive a standard
will likely reflexively hit the brake and the clutch. While, this is not
the best course of action, I fail to see how having the car in gear is
going to be beneficial. In fact, one could reasonably argue that being
in neutral may actually be safer, especially in the event of a front
blowout on a front wheel drive car. The car can coast gradually to a
stop, without the influence of engine braking causing it to pull harder
to the side with the flat tire. In a front blowout in a rear drive car,
engine braking would be beneficial, but that's not what we're dealing
with, is it?
I don't know how old you are, but I learned to drive when most cars were
still rear drive. Many things we were taught are not only not applicable
to front drive cars, they can be dangerous. For example, in the event of
a rear end skid, we were taught to turn into the skid and back off the
gas, which is correct with rear drive, since the engine braking will
slow the rear end and pull it back in line. However, if you do that in a
front drive car, you'll spin it, since the engine braking slows down the
front end, making the rear end skid worse. The proper technique is
actually to accellerate slightly, but how many of us realize that or
practice it enough to break our old habits?
BTW, what specifically do you mean by the vague reference to "a parts
failure"? There are a lot of parts on a car and most of them could fail
without affecting the driver's ability to control the vehicle.
