Vehicle control apparatus

A control apparatus for a vehicle that is provided with (a) an automatic transmission having a plurality of shift ranges and (b) a shifting device including (b-1) a shift actuator and (b-2) a shift lever, wherein

• the shift actuator is configured to establish one of the shift ranges in the automatic transmission such that the established one of the shift ranges corresponds to a selected one of a plurality of shift-lever operating positions of the shift lever,
• when a switching request is made by an operator of the vehicle to request the automatic transmission to be switched to an opposite-direction drive range as one of the shift ranges which is for driving the vehicle in a direction opposite to a current running direction of the vehicle, during running of the vehicle with a running speed being not lower than a given value, said control apparatus is configured to reject the switching request requesting the automatic transmission to be switched to the opposite-direction drive range,
• said control apparatus is configured to reject the switching request requesting the automatic transmission to be switched to the opposite-direction drive range, also during running of the vehicle with the running speed being lower than the given value, if the vehicle is running on a downhill road.