---- "CEW" wrote re: steering-wheel centered pushbutton trannies:
(snip)
> Does anyone know anything or has anyone ever heard anything about this? The
> center buttons of course showed up on the Edsel. But, prototype Mopars?
>
I'm glad we never saw that one... ...the MoPar buttons were cable operated, as
I believe was true for Rambler as well. That would've sure uglified stuff like
horn repair...
The Edsel Teletouch was electrically operated, and far less reliable than the
MoPar cable units. It's largely forgotten today that the '57-'58 Mercurys had
electric buttons as well, but dashmounted. I've also seen a picture of a '58
Lincoln prototype with Edsel-like wheelmount buttons.
Packard offered a choice between column shift and electric pushbuttons in 1956
only. These were located in a pod at the end of what looked like the column
shift at first glance, and would've been the easiest for an unrestrained child
to raise havoc with (tho as I recall the Packard unit included a P/R lockout
when the car was moving). Autolite was the vendor for the Packard unit; don't
know if Ford got theirs there or somewhere else. Also don't know what Packard
button reliability was vis-a-vis Merc/Edsel, but would assume it was less
reliable than the MoPar cable units.
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