For me I've always viewed automatic transmission vehicles like this: Put it in Drive/Overdrive and go. I never use anything else besides Park and Reverse obviously. Neutral I may use if I'm flat and stopped to save my brakes. But I've never downshifted my automatic cars manually into a lower gear or neutral when going down a hill to engine brake, whether the road conditions are dry or snowy/icy. I also never upshift although I'm sure upshifting is fine as long as you're paying attention. So basically I want to know the proper procedure for downshifting an automatic in certain conditions and then how to go back, for example, if you're going down a snowy hill putting the car into neutral, at what point can you pop it back into D...

 

Speed is going to dictate when you can downshift, just like a manual. If you're doing 70MPH, you obviously aren't going to drop it down to 2nd. If you want to get a feel for it, just start in 1st (or second, depending what that car has) and see where it gets you speed-wise. Then upshift to the next. I'll coast down long stretches in neutral every now and then as there is no drag from the engine slowing the car down or keeping it the same speed, which equates to the RPMs going up and although slight while going downhill, MPGs going down. I'll usually just pop it back into drive and keep on going. If you are really worried about it, you could blip the throttle to bring the engine RPM up a bit and it will go into drive a tad smoother. I shift mine up and down quite often. Speaking about the Neon: the only gear that is going to do any good when you are downshifting for better control/engine braking, is 1st. There's not enough torque/drag/gear (not sure what word I'm looking for here) in the Neon to engine brake, so basically, you'll just be maintaining a very slow speed in 1st.

 

Cool thanks for the reply.