Somebody must've thought that Americans needed more protection than others...

 

No, Americans are not stupid. All car companies are afraid of lawyers and even worse, the American Press.


It�s one of 60 Minutes�s
greatest hits, a piece originally broadcast on November 23, 1986, titled "Out
of Control." As presented by veteran correspondent Ed Bradley, the 17-minute
segment showed compelling visual evidence that the Audi 5000, a German luxury
sedan, had a dangerous propensity to lurch forward on its own, even when the
driver�s foot was on the brake. This defect, dubbed "sudden acceleration," was
allegedly responsible for hundreds of accidents. The piece also included
dramatic interviews with six people who claimed that accidents they suffered
in their Audis were caused by the car. Two of the wrecks caused fatalities.


The unintended acceleration fiasco nearly put Audi out of business. This was really the second seminal moment in the creation of the Nanny State with regards to automobile safety(the first was Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed

The starter interlock later became a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. I don't think it was the direct result of the 60 Min. controversy but those were heady times for the US Safety ****'s.

The starter interlock requirement of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 102, Transmission shift position sequence, starter interlock, and transmission braking effect (at S3.1.3) states ``the engine starter shall be inoperative when the transmission shift lever is in a forward or reverse drive position.'' The purpose of this requirement is to prevent injuries and death from the unexpected motion of a vehicle when the driver starts the vehicle with the transmission inadvertently in a forward or reverse gear.


I couldn't easily find when the rule went into effect, but I had a 1987 626 Turbo that did have it and a 1984 626 NA that did not; somewhere in 1987-1988 would be my educated guess.

 

I didn't actually say they were.

 

Ralph Nader....Joan Claybrook......evil personified.

I'm in the Lounge??? Musta pressed the wrong key.

 

Wow, the 2nd Gen section really does get way out of hand when a question is asked. The neutral safety switch was introduced to the RX-7 for the 1987 manufacturing year. 86 and earlier has no nuetral safety switch. Wow that wasn't hard at all

 

Well, the only experience I have is with what I have known. Call me a stupid american, but every manual tran. car i have EVER driven has needed to have the clutch pushed in.

 

Yep, I used it for my remote start so I couldn't use it when in gear. Thankfully Mazda saw fit for a NSS... Lots of manual transmission cars don't have them and only rely on the clutch one. Making remote start a sketchy operation of disabling the clutch switch and relying on habit to leave it in neutral.

 

yeah, 86's didn't have them...
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That just means you've only driven post-86 cars sold in the US. Your initial post didn't make that disclaimer, in fact it was very specific about applying to "ANY CAR WITH A MANUAL TRANSMISSION", complete with attitude. You also said, "...unless I am the ignorant one", but I'll ignore that...

 

Yea, well.... I'd rather be ignorant than dumb! I was wrong, and I learn something new everyday!

 

INTERLOCK!!! If i woulda just searched under that instead of "clutch","starter". etc. We could have avoid this painfull thread.

 

i think they started the whole "clutch in to start" in late '87 seeing as my '86 gxl doesn't have that "problem".

 

And you PROOF is??????????? If you read some of the posts you'd know that some 87's did not have the interlock switch.

 

One North American just got smarter a few minutes ago. I found out there is such a thing as a CELL PHONE JAMMER. And portable at that. Endless possibilities here. The telephone development should have stopped with the rotary dial phone and gone no further.

This Second Generation Lounge is a pretty good place, but I can't find the thread of the naked girls on it.

 

My proof is called you learning to read. I said the 1987 manufacturing year, not model year. For the slow ones that means being built in 87 as an 87 not in 86 as an 87

 

A familiarity with automotive history along with competent use of Google makes anyone look smart.

Even me.

 

I have seen this on alot of rx7, not really anyother 5speed car. Its kinda odd if u ask me but thats my 2 cents