A vehicle control method is provide for automatically controlling an acceleration-deceleration rate control of a vehicle including starting and stopping. The vehicle control method performs the starting of the vehicle at a starting time with a first drive force which exceeds a starting friction force, which is a friction force acting on the vehicle at the starting time. Then, the vehicle control method switches to a second drive force after performing the starting. The second drive force is greater than the first drive force. The second drive force is a drive force that is necessary to make a headway distance to a preceding vehicle equal to a pre-set headway distance when there is a preceding vehicle. The second drive force is a drive force that is necessary to accelerate to a pre-set vehicle speed when there is no the preceding vehicle.