GoGoGadgetMachE
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Michael
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2020
- Threads
- 153
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- 5,614
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- 12,654
- Location
- Ohio
- Vehicles
- 2021 Mach-E 1st Ed., 2022 Lightning Platinum
- Occupation
- Professional forum cheerleader and fanboy
this difference in gear order is something called out in "Unsafe at Any Speed"... which I know is a book that so-called "real car people" (*) hate or whatever but is actually 100% worth the read.Interesting trivia for those that are curious about these things....
General Motors early fully automatic transmissions (PowerGlide) had L and R right next to each other. They did that so users could easily switch back and forth between a low forward and reverse gears to help rock the car back and forth to free a vehicle stuck in mud, sand, snow etc.
Later the position of reverse gear changed to PRNDL because some drivers would accidentally pull down to reverse when they really wanted L.
Photo from my 55 Bel Air....
something like having "PRND" (leaving out L on purpose since a large number of people never have need for it day to day) standardized means it "just works" for the driver. Weirdo gear selector layouts/orders just cause trouble for the sake of being different - when I rented a Nissan about 10 months ago with a weirdo "different just because cool or whatever" selector, I literally had to look up online how to put the car in reverse because it was so weird. This should never ever be the case, period.
(*) these people are wrong