Re: Accidental automatics

["Mike Everatt" <meveratt@Direct.CA>]

Richard,

To my knowledge, all current Jags have the "J-Gate", which eliminates the
possiblity of shifting from 2 to reverse. I have driven many auto boxes,
and the J-Gate works better than anything I've yet expereinced. 

BTW, my wifes Honda accord has the same shift problem described on the
XJ-S, and it's brand new.

Mike Everatt
1987 XJ40

----------
> From: Richard.Mansell@psemail.ps.net
> To: jag-lovers@sn.no
> Subject: Accidental automatics
> Date: Sunday, February 23, 1997 9:48 AM
> 
>      
>      The thread recently about accidentally putting the auto box in
reverse 
>      at inopportune moments reminded me of an article I cut out ages ago 
>      about fatal accidents involving XJ-S's.
>      
>      Since my family will be expanding to three shortly, the two legged 
>      variety, not the 4 tyred type :-( , my wife had ordered me to tidy
up 
>      my magazines this weekend. Whilst leafing through them the article 
>      surfaced again. 
>      
>      It is from January 1981, motor magazine (UK)
>      
>      Jaguar's selector blamed for another accident
>      
>      It was in August 1979 that we reported a fatal accident involving a 
>      Jaguar XJ-S. The car had veered out of control across the road and
hit 
>      a car coming the other way, in which three people lost their lives. 
>      (Picture of smashed car was also included)
>      
>      From the evidence presented at the inquest it seemed abundantly
clear 
>      that what has happened was that the Jaguar driver had used the 
>      automatic selection lever to go down to second gear and then in
moving 
>      it forward to Drive position had gone too far and put the car into 
>      reverse.
>      
>      We can well sympathise with such a mistake, which is all too easy to

>      make with the vague, wrongly gated selector control which Jaguar 
>      persist in fitting. We have criticised it over and over again  in
our 
>      Autotests. What is not widely appreciated is that if an automatic 
>      transmission selector is moved to reverse position, reverse on most 
>      cars will usually engage, whatever the speed, instantly locking the 
>      rear wheels and sending the car out of control.
>      
>      There has now been another fatal accident. At an inquest in
Oswestry, 
>      just before Christmas, the court heard how a woman passenger was 
>      killed when a Jaguar XJ-S went out of control, crossing the road and

>      hit the car in which she was travelling. Accident investigator PC 
>      Keith Little said he believed the accident was caused by the
Jaguar's 
>      automatic gear selector moving from forward position to Reverse or 
>      Park and added that the motoring press had been critical of the 
>      automatic shift control in the Jaguar.
>      
>      For the manufacturer, the moral of these tragedies is clear:
>      
>      There should be no obstruction to free movement between Drive and 
>      second gear positions, otherwise the detents safeguarding other 
>      positions become of no effect. If is an unwanted block between D and
2 
>      has to be overcome, there is nothing to prevent inadvertent movement

>      beyond these positions. In the Jaguar case the problem is
particularly 
>      bad, since a block between D and 2 has to be cleared by moving the 
>      lever sideways both when changing down and changing up.
>      
>      Jaguar will continue to fit the deplorable T-handle control whose 
>      woolly action is so unworthy of the cars. We can not understand why 
>      they refuse to adopt the far superior transmission selector system 
>      used in the Rover. The 1979 accident suggested modifications were 
>      required; the recent all-to-similar case confirms it.
>      
>      
>      Me again, hope you found the above article interesting. If not,
sorry 
>      to waste the bandwidth.
>      
>      Richard
>      richard.mansell@ps.net '89 XJ-S

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