Drivers don’t think outside the gearbox

OF ALL the many strange things I’ve seen in my 50-year career in the motor trade, two — put down to the customer’s lack of product knowledge — really stand out. The gearbox was the cause in both cases. With the introduction, back in the early sixties, of the Ford 107e anglia, came a four-speed gearbox. One customer brought his car back, claiming lack of speed and excessive fuel consumption — you’ve guessed it: he didn’t know the car had four forward gears and he was driving everywhere in third! The second oddity came with the arrival of the Ford Orion 1600i — quite a sporty little car. This customer repeatedly complained that his brand-new car lacked acceleration, jerked and misfired all the time and was completely gutless. repeated road tests by the garage could find no fault whatsoever with the Orion — each time we tried it, it drove faultlessly. Finally, I asked the customer to drive his car while I sat beside him. The problem was the customer. The car had a five-speed transmission, four speeds with an ‘overdrive’ fifth gear, mainly intended for motorway cruising. Well — you don’t really expect much performance when you have the car in fifth, at 28 miles an hour and then try to accelerate . . . he did!

Pete Williams, Hayes, Middx.