# Press safety button to shift into neutral=huh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142 "2013-06-04T19:04:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/1 "2013-06-04T19:04:49Z")
My Mustang GT has a manual transmission. My sons Mustang deluxe is an automatic. I did some work on it and test drove it the other day. Like most automatic transmission cars you have to step on the brake and press a button on the gear shifter to shift from park to drive or reverse. But what I find odd is, when you are in drive in order to shift it into neutral you also have to push in that button. Every other automatic car I’ve owned and/or driven would pop into neutral directly from drive, but would not, of course, shift into any other gear without pushing the button. It seems to me this could be a safety issue. Say someone has a stuck accelerator and needs to go into neutral quickly. Also, by requiring the button to be pushed to shift to neutral it opens the possibility one could shift too far past neutral and into reverse, screwing up the tranny. What’s the deal? Why would Ford design this like that? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/2 "2013-06-04T19:06:19Z")
Is it designed to work that way, or is there some malfunction with the safety linkage? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/3 "2013-06-04T19:09:35Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Is it designed to work that way, or is there some malfunction with the safety linkage? It seems to have been set up to work that way. I’ll give the boy a call and have him look in the owners maual and see if it says anything about it. ( **I** should have done that when I noticed it!:smack: ) ---
**Author:** ![J-P\_L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/j-p_l/32/3156_2.png) [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/4 "2013-06-04T19:15:56Z")
Is it one of those automatics that has a manual mode, if so, maybe it is to prevent going to neutral and over rev the engine. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/5 "2013-06-04T20:07:56Z")
I think my Kia Soul behaves this way as well. I’m assuming the 'Stang has a console shift. Those things are easily knocked out of Drive if someone puts something like a purse or take-out food on the console, and a hard stop pushes the stuff forward against the gear selector. (Hmmm… how do they know this?) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/6 "2013-06-04T20:14:25Z")
As the OP says, I’ve never seen an auto that couldn’t be moved between N and D without having to press the safety button. I’ve had two that had manual shift options and those, too, would move from D to N or sideways into the manual arc without any lock. As much of my experience is on Ford products (and Volvos, during the Ford era), I have trouble believing Ford would suddenly change this… but maybe. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/7 "2013-06-04T21:37:39Z")
On my Lincoln LS you have to press the button to shift from Drive to Neutral, but not for Neutral to Drive. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-safety-button-to-shift-into-neutral-huh/660142/8 "2013-06-04T22:33:33Z")
> [@J-P\_L](#): > > Is it one of those automatics that has a manual mode, if so, maybe it is to prevent going to neutral and over rev the engine. No, it’s not one of those. > [@newme](#): > > On my Lincoln LS you have to press the button to shift from Drive to Neutral, but not for Neutral to Drive. That’s how his 'Stang is too. Never drove a car before where the safety button had to be pushed in to shift from drive to neutral. [Owners manual](http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/content/~WO7MUS/~MUS~LEN/42/07musog1e.pdf) doesn’t explain why it is that way.