Patent ID: 7160227

Claim:
A control apparatus for a vehicle including a stepped automatic transmission and a shift control device which controls an operation of the automatic transmission based on a vehicle state such as a value corresponding to a driving force required for the vehicle, according to a pre-stored shift pattern having a shift line for determining whether shifting is performed from one shift speed to an adjacent shift speed, comprising: a controller which automatically selects one shift pattern, based on the vehicle state, from among multiple shift patterns including at least a first shift pattern in which the shift line is set such that the driving force for the vehicle, that is decided by a gear ratio of the shift speed and engine output characteristics, continuously and smoothly changes when shifting is performed from one shift speed to an adjacent shift speed, and a second shift pattern in which the shift line is set such that use of a region, where an engine rotational speed for obtaining the driving force for the vehicle becomes a predetermined high rotational speed, is avoided.