Hello,

I have been driving a plain Toyota Corolla for the last 12 years with
$164,000 miles. I am putting her out to retire. Actually she is
going to a good home with less driving. The Corolla had no features,
just a plain get up and go car.

My new 2002 Honda CR-V is high tech for me. I am cautious how I drive
it. It seems delicate and not as tough as my Corolla.

Anyway, I am not sure how the Over Drive thing works. The dealer
told me it is ideal for the kind of driving I do. He said to leave
the O/D button on all the time to get better mileage.

Any comments?

Thanks

Tom

Your dealer is correct as the car will downshift as needed.
Bob

The overdrive should be left on. (Dash Light Off) for all normal
driving. It will alow the car to decide what gear is best for
performance and gas milage.
FOr the long decents you may want to try sutting the overdrive off
(Dash Light On) and see if the car feels less like it want to pick up
too much speed. It might make shifting into 2nd unneccessary.
What it basically does is tell the transmission not to select the
higest gear (overdrive). I am not sure (maybe others know) if it
also changes the shift settings for the other gears (some cars do, so
do not).

The goal, would be to find the combination of gear selecter (D vs.
2nd) and overdrive (On vs. Off) that makes you most confortable with
the way the car drives on this hill. All other times just use Drive
with overdrive on. (Dash Light Off)

When I first starting driving my '00 V I had trouble keeping at the
speeds around my hometown (average 25 - 45 mph). I figured that the
overdrive ratio had something to do with it. So I kicked out the O/D
and now I can maintain the speed limits...especially 25 mph. I spend
more time in the city than on the highway.