The one thing that is lubricated by the fluid is the seals in the transmission and without circulating fluid you can burn out the seals pretty quick. Not sure what gears are moving when in neutral but most planetary gears are constantly meshing and without circullating cooling fluid you could have problems also.

Maybe there's something I'm missing here, but... What happens when a squirrel (or child, elephant, mother-in-law, etc) unexpectedly runs across the street forcing you to brake, making you come up short of making it to the red light in EOC? Unlike restarting in Neutral in a MT, wouldn't you have to come to a complete stop, put it back in Park, restart it, put it in drive, get to the light, and shut off the engine again? Seems like a potentially dangerous situation when the person driving behind you (probably already up your butt from Hypermile driving ;)) has no clue you have to put it in Park and restart the engine 30 feet short of the red light. Coasting upto the light in gear seems to be a better option when including the potential costs of tranny damage or a $500 insurance deductible for getting rear-ended.

you can start an auto in neutral or park for just that reason.

huh, well what-d-ya know. just ran out and started the wife's 4AT Solara up in Neutral... guess I was thinking it was Drive you couldn't do it in. learn something new every day :)

You have to have the foot on the brake when taking it out of park.

My auto gearbox (Nissan FWD 4-speed one) states it can be towed, with wheels on the ground, for up to 30 miles, at up to 30mph. But no more.

What is that all about? I guess that it *does* damage it to EOC, but, you can once in a blue moon do some EOTowing?

Anyway, I am now doing a lot of EOCing with it. Also, you can start it in Neutral (like all autos), and also it changes into gear very easily from neutral if I rev-match it.

Although I wouldn't do this if my car was worth more than the $1000 ($800US) I paid for it :). And also wouldn't do it, if I didn't plan to get a manual conversion in the next year or two :)

I don't do it. I wait til I stop, then kill the engine while still in drive. Once the engine has stopped spinning, I shift to neutral. When cross-lights turn yellow, I start engine, then shift to drive (this is the only part that could cause some wear), as light turns green I go. I figure a few cents of gas is a whole lot cheaper than a new transmission! I also only do this on lights that I know are particularly long. :)

What I do do, with mine, is engine-off coast to a stop whenever possible, (and never EOC above the 30mph/50kph maximum towing speed from the handbook.

But I don't care about the transmission - if it starts playing up, or gets noisy, I will use it until it nearly dies, then get a manual. (I do treat it gently though, and hope it lasts!)