I read about neutral gears being used for all sorts of things, from "coasting" to other various ways to "save" gas while driving for mostly manuals trannies. Then I came across people mentioning the use neutral for the same ways on an automatic tranny. Personally, I don't do any of that because I think the gas savings are not worth messing up the transmission (potentially).

So that leads me to the next question.... Do u guys (ones with auto trannies) use the neutral gear at all? If so, what do u guys use it for? What exactly is the use for neutral gear in an automatic transmission?

Also, while testing out the transmission, I put the car into neutral, took my foot off the brake, and them switched into drive gear.... I did not give it gas. I wanted to see how responsive the tranny was for gear s***. Does this damage the transmission to go from neutral to drive without using the brake even if I did not give the car gas?

dual purpose for me in the '08, coasting into a stop light so i don't have to apply either foot pedals, just taking a break basically. And at the stop if on level ground so I don't have to keep my foot on the break for 2 minutes while the light decides to change.
3rd actually, when i pull out of the garage as to not flood the garage with exhaust, i toss it into neutral that gets me to the driveway for a 1 minute oil warmup, then i take off.

Nope, don't use it unless I needed to spin the rear tires while working on the car for some reason.

I use it if I know I'll be stopped for more then 30 seconds or so. (drive thru's, long stoplights)

yep in drive throughs or if im on a hill and need to be in reverse, ill let it coast back then come back to drive so i dont have to hit the shift unlock button...

i have even put the car in netural by a mistake a couple times when driving cause i usually have it in manual and ill take off in D thinking im in manual and "do a up shift" to netural by a mistake lol... no problems though

cameljockey wrote:dual purpose for me in the '08, coasting into a stop light so i don't have to apply either foot pedals, just taking a break basically. And at the stop if on level ground so I don't have to keep my foot on the break for 2 minutes while the light decides to change.
3rd actually, when i pull out of the garage as to not flood the garage with exhaust, i toss it into neutral that gets me to the driveway for a 1 minute oil warmup, then i take off.

I use it very similarly...

Anytime I'm on flat ground at a light, I'm almost always in neutral. On a long downhill, I consistently shift into neutral and use the brake as necessary to slow down, and then shift into D on the fly once I hit an unacceptably low speed...

I only use neutral when parking on a slope. With my foot on the break I apply the park break, release the breaks, then put the tranny in park.

I've never thought that by throwing it in neutral that you'd hurt the transmission. I've tried throwing it in neutral a bunch of times while coasting. Was able to put the selector on ECO and get nearly 30mpg with mostly freeway driving. It's the city driving that kills my mpg's. So I'll cheat in neutral as much as possible in the city. And on a couple good declines on the freeway.

I would highly recommend resisting the urge of shifting in and out of neutral to drive on a regular basis; it puts extra and unnecessary stain, and wear and tear on your transmission. Come to a complete stop and then select gear from PRND.