First time owning a brand new car - a few questions about automatic transmission and owning a new car

Question

I just ordered my brand new Volvo XC60 T6 AWD Inscription 2019. My previous car was Renault Megane 2012 and honestly, it was great. It had automatic climate control, automatic wipers, was quite fast, traction control worked great even in hard terrain.. But I just started family and I thought it would be a great idea to have a modern, safe vehicle with autosteer, independent heating unit, integrated child booster seats, blind spot assist etc..

However I have never driven a car with automatic transmission before and I am terrible with cars, so I have a couple questions, if you don't mind.

1. Is the P on automatic transmission basically the same thing as shifting into first gear and turning off the engine with manual transmission? Do I need to use parking brake?

2. Is brake autohold "strong" enough? Will it hold my car even on really steep hills?

3. Is there any advantage to having both ventilated and heated seats enabled at the same time?

4. Can I trust autopark enough to use it daily?

5. Is the Volvo's autosteer the same thing as Tesla's autopilot? The car dealer told me, that's it's the same technology but with a different name basically.

6. Do I need to use any premium gas? I got the T6 engine.

And do you have any tips for an owner of a new car? I have never owned a brand new car. My Renault Megane was a refurbish unit, never really done anything special to it apart than refilling oil and replacing brake pads. Thanks for any help/tips!

Answer 1

Welcome to the site. Moving from a manual gearbox to automatic is fairly painless (unless you use your clutch foot to press the big brake pedal - you won't do that more than once!). Essentially you place the car in D(rive) and release the brake pedal. The car will creep forward and pressing the gas will cause it to move off.

P(ark) engages something called the parking pawl. This is basically a locking mechanism which locks the gearbox and wheel in a stationary position. It's technically different from a manual in gear with the engine off but the effect is basically exactly the same. In P, the car won't move, even if you get out and push it.

I can't comment on the Volvo autohold but the Volkswagen system is plenty strong enough for fairly steep hills. It typically operates the rear brakes so is very similar to pulling up the e-brake (handbrake).

Not sure why you'd have ventilated and heated seats on at the same time, I guess it would feel like you've wet yourself? Certainly nothing to stop you trying it when you get the car although the HVAC system may only allow you to have one or the other?

Your level of trust in the autopark system will either grow as you use it or it'll make a silly mistake one day and you'll never use it again.

The autosteer is effectively a lane assist type system so if the car observes you are slowly wandering towards either white line, it'll gently apply some steering input to correct the course of the car. Different manufacturers have different brand names for this. I guess the Tesla system is a combination of lane assist and inteligent cruise control where it'll use a front mounter radar / laser to slow down as the traffic in front slows. Many manufactures have these systems available.

Regarding the T6 engine, according to Volvo you can run the car on regular (87 RON) but they recommend at least 91 RON for optimum performance.

The biggest tip I can give you is to read the owners handbook and enjoy the car.