Patent ID: 8849525

Claim:
A vehicle control unit for a vehicle in which mechanical power received from an internal combustion engine through an engine output shaft is transmitted to a driving wheel through a process of causing a transmission to change a rotational speed and that is capable of controlling the transmission, the vehicle control unit comprising: a gear ratio determination unit which, in an automatic mode, automatically determines a gear ratio in accordance with an operational status of the vehicle, the determined gear ratio being used to change a rotational speed in the transmission; a selecting unit which, in a manual mode, selects one of a plurality of predetermined gear ratios that are set in advance, in accordance with a driver operation, the selected gear ratio being used to change a rotational speed in the transmission, wherein the manual mode includes a temporary manual mode in which a switch to the automatic mode automatically takes place in accordance with the operational status of the vehicle, wherein at the time of switching a mode of operation from the automatic mode to the temporary manual mode through a downshift operation that changes a gear ratio to a lower gear ratio, if an engine speed that is a rotational speed of the engine output shaft is lower than a reference rotational speed that is a threshold being determined in accordance with a vehicle speed, any one of the plurality of predetermined gear ratios is selected so that the engine speed is equal to or more than the reference rotational speed, and wherein, if there are a plurality of predetermined gear ratios at which the engine speed is equal to or more than the reference rotational speed, the selecting unit selects a gear ratio that is closest to the fastest gear ratio.