Sage
Staff Emeritus
- 12,533
- United States
- GTP_Sage
Two-part question:
1 Are rat-maze automatics made that way because it’s easier/cheaper mechanically (that is, the pattern somehow follows the mechanical pattern), or are they made that way only so that each spot can be “locked” into place without using a button on the stick?
2 If the answer to #1 is the latter, then why use the rat-maze pattern? What’s wrong with putting a button on the stick so that you can have a more straightfoward layout? In fact… how come today you have to buy a hyper-expensive car to get push-button automatics (e.g., Aston Martin DB9), but fifty years ago you could get push-button autos in some mainstream cars?
1 Are rat-maze automatics made that way because it’s easier/cheaper mechanically (that is, the pattern somehow follows the mechanical pattern), or are they made that way only so that each spot can be “locked” into place without using a button on the stick?
2 If the answer to #1 is the latter, then why use the rat-maze pattern? What’s wrong with putting a button on the stick so that you can have a more straightfoward layout? In fact… how come today you have to buy a hyper-expensive car to get push-button automatics (e.g., Aston Martin DB9), but fifty years ago you could get push-button autos in some mainstream cars?