5 9
Driving your vehicle
Good driving practices
• Never take the vehicle out of gear and
coast down a hill. This is extremely haz-
ardous. Always leave the vehicle in gear.
• Do not "ride" the brakes. This can
cause them to overheat and malfunc-
tion. Instead, when you are driving
down a long hill, shift to a lower gear.
When you do this, engine braking will
help slow down the vehicle.
• Slow down before shifting to a lower
gear. This will help avoid over-revving
the engine, which can cause damage.
• Slow down when you encounter cross
winds. This gives you much better con-
trol of your vehicle.
• Be sure the vehicle is completely
stopped before you attempt to shift into
R (Reverse). The transaxle can be dam-
aged if you do not.
• Exercise extreme caution when driving
on a slippery surface. Be especially
careful when braking, accelerating or
shifting gears. On a slippery surface,
an abrupt change in vehicle speed can
cause the drive wheels to lose traction
and the vehicle to go out of control.
WARNING
• Always buckle-up! In a collision,
an unbelted occupant is signifi-
cantly more likely to be seriously
injured or killed than a properly
belted occupant.
• Avoid high speeds when corner-
ing or turning.
• Do not make quick steering
wheel movements, such as sharp
lane changes or fast, sharp turns.
• The risk of rollover is greatly
increased if you lose control of
your vehicle at highway speeds.
• Loss of control often occurs if
two or more wheels drop off the
roadway and the driver over-
steers to reenter the roadway.
• In the event your vehicle leaves
the roadway, do not steer sharply.
Instead, slow down before pulling
back into the travel lanes.
• Never exceed posted speed limits.
