My last three cars (all manual transmissions) wouldn’t let the starter crank unless the clutch was engaged. When was this design incorporated into cars?
In HS drivers’ ed, we were told that if our car were someplace potentially dangerous (train crossing, weak shoulder, flood plain) and it wouldn’t start (but the starter would crank), we should put it in gear and crank the motor, just to get it out of harms way. Now I guess that can’t be done anymore.
I’d have to say that they started doing this in the early 90’s. I started driving in the late 80s/early 90s and my mother’s car at the time and another car I owned later that was an 88 didn’t have this feature. MY 95 Escort and the wife’s 95 Mustang both have this feature.
There were too many people starting the car, in gear, without putting in the clutch, and so running into things. Naturally that is the fault of the car manufacturer. The manufacturer gets tired of being sued and adds an idiot switch to the car.
Some cars with automatic transmissions have a switch on the brake. The car won’t start unless the brake pedal is pushed in.
I had a 75 Buick Skyhawk with this feature. All the other manual transmissions cars I’ve owned since then (albeit the newest is an 86) did not have it (actually, I believe my 86 Civic used to have this feature when the previous owner had it, but the switch was either disabled or it shorted, because it doesn’t happen any more. Lucky for me, since I was still able to start the car and drive it over to a mechanic even after a clutch bracket broke. Otherwise I would have had to pay $$ for towing). I always thought that it was manufacturer-based; some did have it, some didn’t.
I would hazard a guess that preventing a car from lurching forward through your garage wall (and possibly over some poor schlepp standing in front of the car) is a more likely problem than stalling on railroad tracks and thus worthy of preventative measures.
If you find yourself stalled on railroad tracks I suggest using your feet to carry you out of the car and to the nearest phone to call your insurance company.
One of my ex-MIL’s (FIL like to get married alot) let me borrow her Ford ranger to pick up some furniture. When I returned the truck she asked me how it drove. I said “Fine. Why?”. She said that sometimes the truck would stall. When she tried to crank it the truck would do absolutely nothing, but if she let it sit for a while it would crank right up. I asked if she were sure she had the clutch pedal pressed all the way in when she tried to crank it. She said “Do what?”.
She had owned the truck for several years and didn’t know the clutch pedal had anything to do with the ignition process. Apparently, when she choked down the engine, she would try several times without pressing the clutch, get no results, wait 15 minutes, coincidentally press the clutch, and start the truck. She never made the connection until I told her.
How many garages would she have ruined without the idiot switch?
My '95 4Runner has a ‘Clutch Start Override’ button. If you hold it down you can start without the clutch. So far I’ve used this to start when I can’t reach the pedals for whatever reason - the button makes me double check the stick is in neutral. Never tried it in gear.
If I’m on a railroad track, I’m only going to give this one shot to get me off, then I’m outta there.
My wife’s 93 Escort (5-speed) requires that the clutch be pushed all the way to the floor before it can be started. My daughter’s 92 Grand Am (3-speed auto) requires that the brake pedal be pushed when trying to get out of park into whatever gear. My 88 VW Fox (4-speed) can be started any damn way it wants, but I almost always start it with the clutch pedal pushed in.
My '85 Toyota MR2 requires the clutch to be pushed in. My '82 VW Vanagon did not.
Let’s see, my…
85 Escort - required park/neutral for start
- brake not important
68 Beetle - required nothing but turning the key
79 Valare - required park/neutral for start
- brake not important
87 Escort - required clutch to be disengaged (i.e., to the floor)
90 Civic - required clutch to be disengaged
95 Civic - required clutch to be disengaged
78 Cougar - required park/neutral for start
- brake not important
94 Bonny - required park to start (oddly, wouldn’t start in neutral)
- required brake to shift out of Park
00 Bonny - requires park to start (haven’t tried the neutral yet)
- requires brake to shift out of Park
00 Ranger - requires park/neutral for start
- requires brake to shift out of Park
In addition, all of the rental cars I’ve driven in the last couple of years required the brake to be engaged to shift out of park. Generally rentals are late-model cars, so that makes sense. FWIW, this is the list: Malibu, Grand Marquis, Caterra, Impala, New Beetle, Grand Prix, Grand Am, Suburban, and Cavalier. I didn’t get to test these in Neutral, but I think it’s an important trait for me.
“She had owned the truck for several years and didn’t know the clutch pedal had anything to do
with the ignition process.”
Yeah, that happened with a lady I know too. She never noticed that for 7 years & then one day she tried just about everything to get it going & I had to come see her & said it all looks alright, let me try to start it & I did, pushing Clutch in to start.
Manual (i.e. non-automatic) cars used to have what is called a neutral safety switch. This was a relay in the transmission which would only allow the starter to engage when the gearshift was in neutral. Today cars use a switch on the clutch pedal which only allows the stater to engage when its depressed.
So why the change? Simple. Money.
Clutch switches are much simpler (read cheaper) to manufacture and install than neutral safety switches. Mounting them in the tranny means the have to withstand very high and low temps and being constantly soaked in oil. They also must not allow tranny oil to leak out of them. Clutch switches are just (fairly) cheap plastic switches, often the same design that the brake lights use, mounted under the dash.
Curiously, I’ve never owned a manual vehicle that had such a feature in either form. I currently have a '94 Saab 900 which does not have a safety switch on either the transmission or the clutch. It will lurch if you turn the starter in gear without the clutch depressed.
I think the projected market for Saab owners would dictate that only non-stupid people drive them, hence no need to protect against running into the back of the garage, the facing car in a parking lot, or anything else.
Although, what’s to stop oldies from cranking thier engines with the clutch engaged, driving their Saabs into buildings, and then blaming it on a stuck accelerator? 
Since I’ve never tried to start a manual trans vehicle without depressing the clutch, I have no idea whether my '95 Nissan PU or my '86 Saab will start while in gear. I do know they’ll start in neutral though, without the clutch pedal depressed. I never leave it in neutral when I park, always in gear. It never occured to me to do anything other than push in the clutch, then turn the key, because I just assume it would start & lurch abruptly forward if in gear.
I’ve also never tried to start my '68 Plymouth Fury in any other mode than “P.” I have rented automatics though that won’t start unless the brake pedal is depressed.
Perhaps Prozac in the tranny fluid would help?
My guess would be one. But I have a charitable soul.
What? Very few transmissions had any electronic controls until the days of fuel injection, OBD, and other such stuff. What cars were these neutral safety switch trannys in? The only such use of the term “neutral safety switch” that I’m familiar with is to describe the brake-to-shift feature in newer automatics.
FWIW, 5 speed Cavaliers (mine included) have a clutch safety switch under the pedal, mounted to the firewall. While the clutch disengages with about 1.5 inches of travel, you must push it the full 5-6 inches to the floor to hit the switch. Mine has been disabled, of course.
Also, I do believe it is illegal for a car alarm installation facility to install remote-start on a manual vehicle for the reason that some people (dunderheads) would leave it in gear and start it, jackrabbiting into the car in front or behind it.
That’s why I did it myself, and fixed the E-brake right up tight.
Other cars I’ve driven with a clutch safety switch: Nissan 240SX, Escort GT, Geo Metro, Z28.
–Tim
They weren’t always in the tranny. Sometimes they were in the shift linkage. The point is that they sensed the position of the shifter not the clutch. And sensing the shifter position is more complicated than sensing if the clutch pedal is pressed, so we got annoying clutch safety switches.
I don’t think (or hope) there are any laws against it, but most places just won’t do it. I asked once. They said that if a customer absolutely insists, they will. But they make them sign a waiver against consequential damages first!