Before 1968 or so, there was no standard in automatic shifters. This resulted in people getting run over because drivers were unfamiliar with all the various types of automatic shifters, especially in situations like valet parking where someone may drive many types of cars in a short period of time. The shifter design was later standardized for all vehicles sold in the US to avoid this.
This is covered in details in Nader's Unsafe at any speed. Quite an interesting read. We've gone away from this again with modern cars (2007 S class being one of the first) but there are many mechanisms in the car to prevent them from unexpectedly staying in gear and is regulated by FMVSS. Jaime On Fri, Mar 5, 2021 at 9:57 AM M. Mitchell Marmel via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > [image: image.png] > Why were they mounted essentially upside down with Park at the bottom and > 1st at the top? Seems to be the potential for considerable confusion... > > -MMM- > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > -- Jaime Kopchinski http://www.jaimekop.com/ _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
