Re: IML: push button automatics

["Bill Watson" <wwatson5@xxxxxxxxx>]

The change to a shift lever was not a government mandate - the American
government did not have the power to do that until 1966 when the National
Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was not enacted.   Also enacted in 1966
was The Highway Safety Act and formation of the federal Department of
Transportation.  All that began American federal government mandates and
laws.  Prior to that the individual states had laws concerning vehicle
equipment, such as headlamps, but the federal government had no power to do
anything.

Chrysler's buttons had the correct  order,  R-N-D-2-1, and Chrysler at the
time stated it was due to sale resistance from Ford and GM owners that
instigated the switch.  After all, Dodge trucks and Corvairs had a lever on
the dash for their automatics and Srudebaker kept its P-N-D-L-R quadrant
until the very in 1966.

If you check any articles written about the 1965 models, articles written
during 1964-65 that is, you will find no reference to any government madates
or standards.   The switch was an industry decision, just as with the
adoption of backup lights, exterior rear view mirrors and seat belts by
1966.   All in an effort to prevent government intervention.

And pushbuttons are used even today in trucks and buses.

Bill
Vancouver, BC


----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Harvey
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: IML: push button automatics


I never saw anyone who had trouble with push button automatics. I heard
rumors, but never actually knew anyone who had problems.  This is from the
day they were new, to where you could buy the car for $50 if it ran good,
and the floor was still good enough that the seat didn't rock, to the
collector cars they now are.  I had 57 and 58 Mercurys, 58 Edsil, 56-64
Chrysler products with them, NEVER HAD PROBLEMS.  With the Mercury and
Edsils, that was about the only parts that were trouble free.  Chrysler
didn't stop using them because of problems, they stopped because the US
Government mandated a standard automatic transmission selector starting
1955.  GM had to redesign their transmissions to put the R between P and N,
instead of all the way to the bottom where it had been from day one.

JOhn



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