Well my suggestion being that it's (the gearbox) probably doing an awful lot more of 1st to neutral to 1st again, over the lifetime of the box by somebody who habitually moves out of drive, when stopped on the road. Not necessarily that that kind of driving behaviour causes any more strain than other gearchanges - merely that it's likely to be disengaging and re-engaging 1st a helluva lot more than when being driven by somebody who doesn't do this.
Now I'll accept - it could be a complete coincidence - but the condition of the vehicle, and the claimed age of the previous owner, suggested a type of behaviour, plus - as I said - it probably has done a whole lot more of engaging 1st over it's life, than an auto drive by somebody who doesn't religiously move it out of D when stopped briefly.
There's quite a degree of supposition and buttumption in what I've wrote - which I accept - but as I see it, for a beautifully maintained car, having merely 1st slip at relatively low miles (especially given the car concerned), is either indicative of it being an abnormal gearbox failure fault (which it could be) or habitual behaviour by the driver.
Bright rear lights 1521Uno Hoo!" wrote in message I use cruise control quite often as it helps to keep under the speed limit without...
I also know that the autobox in the Volvo S80 started with the car automatically doing this, when stopped with the footbrake on, for over X seconds, then automatically engaging 1st again, when moving off. However, there has been software updates made available for the gearbox, since, to stop the autobox doing this, and behaving more traditionally. My understanding (and this is only really garnered from hearsay or unofficial comments) being that this behaviour by the gearbox had introduced faults and issues with the gearbox - and if fairness, I can't think of any other reason why they'd provide a software update to stop it doing this.
