<VV> Idiot-proofing cars, was: Neutral Safety switch (little Corvair)

[Mark Corbin]

Thankfully! That would have been a downgrade, not an upgrade. I'm just glad
the Corvair is old enough not to have been a victim of the "we gotta
out-think the customer, 'cause he's an idiot" mentality that set in back
then, and has only gotten worse with age. 

The Fiero manual trans cars had a steering column with a lever that had to
be pushed in order to remove the key. I always thought that it would
instead only encourage people to leave the key in the ignition. LOL But the
fix for that idiot device was to swap in an automatic trans column, which
didn't have that annoying mechanism in it.

-Mark

> [Original Message]
> From: kenpepke at juno.com <kenpepke at juno.com>
> Subject: Re: <VV> Neutral Safety switch
>
> Actually there was a 'depress-clutch to crank' switch on many later 60s
era U.S. cars long before government intervention ... My 3 speed Elcamino
had one.  The transmission had to be shifted to reverse to lock the
ignition and remove the key from the switch.  Even my lawn tractor of that
time required pulling the cutting blades up so as to be out of motion and
depressing the clutch to crank the engine.  GM did not see fit to upgrade
the Corvair probably because it had become such a limited production
vehicle.  
> Ken P   
>
> **********************
> Sethracer at aol.com wrote: [in part]
>
>  As far as the Corvair-era  
> cars, did the car companies think that automatic transmission drivers
were  
> stupider than manual transmission drivers? Is that the reason for the
neutral  
> safety switch? That era had no "depress-clutch to crank" switch.  
> Seth  Emerson
>