Shortly after leaving home I encounter a steep hill down to a main road. I drive an automatic car. How do I stop the car gaining speed without braking in the snow/ice? The gearbox doesn't offer numbered gears, just Drive.
Presumably you're absolutely sure you don't have low/1 or 2 gear options? I have had lots of automatics and they all had low gears available. Only other advice I can offer is apply very gentle brake pressure all the way - a really light touch with nothing sudden.
I've never come across an automatic car which doesn't have a means of selecting a lower gear for descending hills. Nowadays they usually have a means of selecting a higher gear for starting off in slippy conditions too.
I have an automatic Merc and although the main line of choices is P,N,R and D I can also slide the selector across to the left where there is another channel to select + or -. Select the minus and it will you put you in a lower gear than drive.
The setup is exactly as you describe it Prudie, but I assumed the sideways shift to a lower gear was temporary (as if you're temporarily dropping a gear prior to overtaking) and that it would return to a higher gear once the revs built up. However, I'll try it out tomorrow.
Thanks to other contributors too!
Moving shifter to left gives you manual control of the box, forward for Up, backward for Down like driving a manual car without a clutch, when you want Auto again move shifter back to the right.