Vehicle control device

A vehicle control device which is applied to a vehicle having a transmission device in a power transmission path for transmitting power from a drive device to a drive wheel, the vehicle control device comprising:

• a travel control unit configured to set a target acceleration of the vehicle based on either a predetermined target vehicle speed and an actual vehicle speed, or a predetermined target inter-vehicle distance and an actual inter-vehicle distance, and execute a travel control for automatically controlling travel of the vehicle by operating the drive device based on the target acceleration;
• a shift control unit configured to set a target driving force of the vehicle based on at least an actual vehicle speed, and execute a shift control for operating the transmission device based on the target driving force;
• and
• a downshift suppression control unit configured to acquire an actual acceleration during execution of the travel control by the travel control unit and suppress execution of downshift of the transmission device by the shift control unit based on a predetermined acceleration threshold value different from the target acceleration and the actual acceleration.