what is the ‘overdrive’ button that appears in the car?

a overdrive button allows the car to take on like another gear..it causes your engine not to have to work so hard when you are driving at a great rate of speed…the les hard your engine has to work, the less fuel it burns….overdrive is solely used at fast driving speed

It is a higher gear for long distance driving such as on the freeway. Most cars are a 4 speed automatic with overdrive or in other words, a 5 speed. Overdrive lets the car shift into overdrive (5th gear) and get better mileage on the highway. I would leave it on all the time because it wont make a difference around town. It just allows the car to go into the higher gear when it needs to.

overdrive was designed to be used for the following situations: when driving on the highway for long periods,long trips,and on flat roads. if you use it all the time in hilly areas the transmission will shift too much causing bad gas mileage. ive owned several cars and trucks with overdrive. mine now has it.use it in the manner(situations) i described and it will improve your gas mileage. when not in those situations turn it off.

the “true” meaning of the word overdrive, as it applies to mechanics, is, simply, that the output side of the transmission is turning faster than the input … stated another way the input/output ratio is greater than 1:1

obviously you’ve got an automatic tranny. the overdrive should always be on unless you’re towing something. you’ve got electronic overdrive, meaning when the car gets up to speed it will shift into overdrive and slow the engine down and use less fuel. if you’re towing something you should keep it off unless you’ve got a big engine, whatever you are towing is not that heavy, or you are driving a long distance. if you find yourself having to press harder on the gas quite often to maintain speed, you might want to turn over drive off. but remember, overdrive is simply to save fuel.