On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 16:52 -0500, Neil Cherry wrote:
> BTW, this is one of the reasons I still prefer a manual shift.
> I can dis-engage (I love that word :-) the transmission from
> the engine. An automation transmission may not drop into
> neutral if you manually shift it (this recently occurred, to
> me, on someone else's car).

Sorry, but I don't really see the worthwhile benefit. 

To begin, the situation you describe is extremely rare. It is FAR more
likely for automatic tranny to start slipping, then for it to lock up. 
About the ONLY thing I can think of that would cause what you describe
is the torque converter lockup clutch sticking (if your car is
equipped). This does happen, but generally letting up on the gas and
stepping on the brake will stall the engine (since lockup usually occurs
in only 3rd and 4th gear on most cars) bringing you to a safe condition.

Now, if you're talking about a engine "race away" condition AND the
tranny refusing to enter neutral, you always have the ignition switch.

And on my car, if that fails, I just arm my cars alarm with it's FOB,
thereby cutting power to the ignition module. No power to that module,
no engine running.

Don't get me wrong, I like standard gearboxes, but I don't see this
reason as a valid argument for them.

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