Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Who decided ... ?

On the Plus Six, with a BMW autobox, the "gearlever" is pulled backwards to drive forwards, and vice-versa. It's the same on my Volvo EV, lever backwards to go forwards. Is it just me, or is this plainly daft?

Naa, it's sooo advanced Mog tech that it's pull 'back... to the future'

Same in wife's Volvo... completely anti intuitive...

I recall it's the norm for floor mounted auto selection. Never occurred to me to question it.

The DAF "Variomatic" had a stick you pushed "Forwards to go forwards, back to go back". It was even their advertising slogan.

Perhaps they have a patent on the concept!

Hmm, I press the accelerator pedal forward, to go faster, but I also press the brake pedal forward to go slower. Hopefully not at the same time. I move the gear level on my 4/4 forward to start (1st gear) then move it back (2nd) go go faster. Then forwards to go even faster....... On my hang glider I move the control bard backwards to go faster but on my Cessna moving the control scolumn forwards makes it go faster, unless of course I'm upside down. And as for in a rowing eight, I've no idea I'm going backwards when the boat is going forwards but I'm pulling the oar towards me to accelerate, even though the oar blade is going backwards relative to the boat. It's all relative I guess.

Just he thankful you don't own a really old car where the pedals aren't in the same order! 🙂

K

Got an axe to grind here. Nothing to do with Morgans or at least not specific to Morgans. We have 3 cars and all of them have different stalks and gear selection locations. The framily Merc has the most stupid of the lot because the gear "lever" is a normal stalk to the right of the wheel and where one other car has its indicators and the third has its wipers. But to make matter worse if you unintendedly use the gear stalk in the Merc whilst say in the outside lane of the M4 it takes you out of gear but wont let you back into gear. So there you are in the outside lane with no drive until you get across to the hard shoulder and can re -engage.

This stupidity might not have mattered when I was 18 and had a functioning brain but at 80 it does matter.

Why cant the wretched EU, which loves to meddle with our lives, do something useful and standardise car controls. As it does damn near every other bit of the machine.

Mind you, and to drivel on a bit further, the mind is a funny thing. When I got my first boat it had a tiller. You push the tiller to the right to turn the boat to the left. Perhaps because I was young, this was no issue. 7 years later I sold that boat and bought another, this time with a wheel,. I was of course driving but nevertheless my brain told me to turn the wheel anticlockwise to steer the boat to the right. But the wheel steering on a boat is the same as on a car so turning anti clockwise made the boat go left.

The following two boats were also wheel steered but I have recently downsized and got a boat again with a tiller. Yes you have guessed - I have instinctively been pulling it towards me to go left mimicing what I do with a wheel.

To my Mum (bless her), going from 3rd gear to 4th was changing down, because you pulled the lever downwards.
I came close to wrecking the engine of the family car during my first driving lesson with her!