A vehicle control apparatus for a vehicle including an automatic transmission having a torque converter provided with a lock-up clutch, the vehicle control apparatus including a kick-down controller that performs kick-down control to change a transmission ratio to a low side and to increase a number of engine revolutions based on a kick-down request in accordance with an accelerator operation; and a lock-up controller that performs lock-up disengagement control based on the kick-down request to set the lock-up clutch to a disengaged state according to meeting of a disengagement condition. When the kick-down request not during the kick-down control is called a normal kick-down request and the kick-down request during the kick-down control is called a second-time kick-down request, the lock-up controller performs lock-up disengagement control according to the second-time kick-down request based on the disengagement condition which is more eased than the disengagement condition used for the normal kick-down request.

A running control device of a vehicle includes an engine, a clutch separating the engine and wheels, and a torque converter with a lockup clutch transmitting power of the engine toward the wheels, the running control device of a vehicle is configured to execute a neutral inertia running mode that is an inertia running mode performed while the engine and the wheels are separated and a cylinder resting inertia running mode performed by stopping operation in at least some of cylinders of the engine while the engine and the wheels are coupled, the lockup clutch has a weak engagement force while the neutral inertia running mode is performed as compared to while the cylinder resting inertia running mode is performed.

A vehicle controller includes a lock-up clutch disposed to a power transmission path between an engine and a driving wheel, and a clutch configured to connect and disconnect the power transmission path, wherein at the time of switching driven traveling for causing a vehicle to travel by connecting the power transmission path and inertia traveling for causing the vehicle to travel by disconnecting the power transmission path, the lock-up clutch and the clutch are switched at switching start timings different from each other.