Posted on 02/08/2016 5:22:46 PM PST by rickmichaels
Electronic gear shifters on some newer Fiat Chrysler SUVs and cars are so confusing that drivers have exited the vehicles with the engines running and while they are still in gear, causing crashes and serious injuries, U.S. safety investigators have determined.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents posted during the weekend, has doubled the number of vehicles involved in an investigation of the problem, but it stopped short of seeking a recall. The agency found more than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries, mostly in Jeep Grand Cherokees.
Agency tests found that operating the centre console shift lever “is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection,†investigators wrote in the documents. They upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer to a recall. NHTSA will continue to gather information and seek a recall if necessary, a spokesman said.
The investigation could determine just how much auto makers can change the way cars operate when they introduce new technology, and how far they can stray from conventional ways of controlling vehicles that drivers are accustomed to.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
That’s the damn electric fan due to front-wheel drive, and should still be prevalent but something must’ve changed. Rear wheel doesn’t need it as the fan always runs along with the engine crank.
Got a similar one in my motor home.
My friends old three speed on the column pickup confused me..
Yup. Love my four door hatchback SAAB 9-3 Turbo with a manual five speed. Car hauls you know, and is comfortable. I’ll keep it forever.
My Acura has a push button shifter.
If you open the door while it's in gear, it'll let you roll about 5 feet then it jams on the brake and puts it in park.
It also shifts to park if your push the button to shut it off, no matter what gear you're in.
Also if you put it in neutral and open the door, it goes into park. I'm not quite sure how the car wash guys keep it in neutral, but they've got it figured out. heh.
Finally, if you have brake hold on and are stopped, if you pop your seat belt off the brake stays engaged and it goes into park. I'm not sure why it does that. The brake hold is nice if you're at long traffic lights...you can take your foot off the brake and just the lightest touch on the accelerator disengages it.
Does anyone remember the push button shifter on the dash of the 1958 Dodge? Nothing intuitive about it. If you wanted to shift for any reason, you had to take your eyes off the road and focus on the buttons on the dash.
Yep. Driving a 15 year old Ford pickup with a stick now. Next vehicle will most likely be a stick as well. Learned on the backroads of a Marine base when I was a third grader and my Dad was patient. Taught my son when he was 14 here on the mountain where I live in Montana. Nobody ever borrows his car now as they can't drive a stick!
Geez, I learned to drive a tractor first, and that wasn't an automatic by any stretch of the imagination. A four speed manual transmission in a car was nothing by the time I learned how to drive a car. It was second nature, and a damn' sight easier than a farm tractor.
I think I learned to drive in less than 20 minutes. Keeping a tractor between rows of corn is a lot harder than keeping a puny V-8 Olds 442 between two yellow lines!
Had a ‘64 Dodge Dart with that.
Remember a guy up the drag strip with a ‘63 Belvedere with a 426 wedge motor and push button automatic.
One thing that happened in that era was the major consolidation of farms. Not that many farm boys and girls signing up for the service any more because their total numbers are way down.
Public skool graduates can't...
“This article caused me and my husband to have an argument about what an automatic gear shift even looks like.”
My mom would start singing to my dad during and argument. He would promptly throw up his hands and go into the other room after that because he knew he just lost the argument.
(grin)
I thought about that after I posted.Ever notice how more and more pages in manuals are pictures not text? bought a chainsaw last year and it’s owner’s manual is just about all pics.
Do you have a turbo- they build up so much heat that the cooler should keep running when you shut down so that the engine doesn’t cook itself from the residual heat.
I’ve always avoided turbos because of the heat issues.
My dad had a rambler with those pushbuttons.
The manual was in French and English,mostly pics on both languages.
Was it lime green?
Mine was.
I know back in the early 80s the US Army decided to go exclusively with automatics because so few recruits knew how to drive manuals and it took too long to train them.
One of the many reasons that I have owned nothing but stick shift vehicles since the 1960s, including my current 6 speed Jeep Wrangler.
This is partially why I’ve installed a manual in my explorer.
My daily is a stick. That and once you go stick you don’t go back.
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