RAY MAGLIOZZI

Dear Car Talk: I have a 2020 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE. Like many cars these days, it has an automatic transmission with an option to shift the gears manually.

Sometimes, I forget to shift out of the manual mode and find myself traveling faster than I should in a lower gear, like 50 mph in third gear.

Am I doing damage to my transmission? — Scott

No. But you might want to turn Green Day on the car stereo down from 10 to 9, Scott.

Cars are getting smarter all the time, Scott. They surpassed my IQ around 1996. In the past, it was possible to damage your engine by downshifting at too high a speed or going too fast in a lower gear. But you really can’t do that anymore.

Several decades ago, you could over-rev your engine that way, causing catastrophic damage. You could actually blow your engine. You could make the engine turn so fast it would literally come apart.

But engines are controlled by computers now. And the computer knows how fast the engine is turning. When the engine speed gets near its predetermined limit, the computer will now reduce the fuel supply to prevent the engine from going any faster. If you’ve driven a modern car with a manual transmission, you may have experienced this as a loss of power when you reach the tachometer’s red line.

A computer also controls the transmission now, so it won’t even let you downshift into a gear if you’re going too fast for that gear. And on a lot of cars with automatic transmissions and manual shift options, if you’re in too low a gear, the car will either refuse to go faster or will simply upshift to the next gear for you.

In any case, 50 mph in third gear is not excessive. You’d use a little more fuel at that speed in third gear, but you wouldn’t do any damage, Scott.

Got a question about cars? Write to Ray in care of King Features, 300 W. 57th St., 41st Floor, New York, NY 10019, or email by visiting the Car Talk website at www.cartalk.com.