crazyscot

Our car has an automatic transmission. It turns out that most cars in NZ do; one salesman explained that auto boxes have come a long way since the crap ones, and are pretty reliable these days (especially considering that the car market here is flooded with Japanese imports).

This is not the first time I have driven an auto box, but I can't say I'm very experienced with them. The conundrum I'm facing is, when waiting at the lights, should I leave the car in Drive with the brake on, or shift into Neutral? Having driven a stick for sixteen years, I instinctively shift into N every time (and usually don't rev the engine before shifting into D; oops) but I don't know how wear and tear from shifting the transmission stacks up against wear on the brakes and the slipping of the transmission when stationary but in Drive. Anybody out there have anything to say on the matter?