'Left & Up'

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Just for some light entertainment....

Anyone else struggle with 'left & up'....
....to engage 1st Gear' on many PSA vehicles?

Dad's second car, back when I was a nipper, was a Peugeot 104 SL, 1.1; the days of the 'X' type lump on its back, the XU hadn't arrived yet.

I feel almost guilty at times for my liking of the Peugeot brand as he just couldn't get on with the 'Left & Up' for First Gear, gearbox arrangement; and habitually pulled away in 3rd giving it loads of revs and slipping the clutch [I'll never know how many clutches it had in the time he had it: on one memorable occasion the AA attended coz it just wouldn't pull away uphill, naturally the fella just got in and drove it away]

Surely he wasn't alone in this difficulty? I do hope he's not turning in his grave!

He'd had a Hillman Imp previously, I've never driven one, but I understand the Gearchange is very different; which 'd be unsurprising, given the very different engineering.

It also was a contender for the most ridiculously ugly colour scheme, similar to this http://autocade.net/index.php/Peugeot_104 but with a black vinyl roof; the days of fashion over commonsense are not new!

[Stickyfinger]

Not really, I just turn the flat of hand and push/pull with gear changes. Never been one for grabbing the knob (stop-it fellas !)

[myglaren]

I have driven a 104 a few years back and didn't notice anything unusual about the gearchange.
But I have never had any problems with any of the cars I have driven apart fro, one occasion with an Hillman Imp when the gearstick came away in my hand - that was a bit of a surprise

[ekjdm14]

Same, I've always considered "left and up" to be the standard. the vast majority of cars have first at the top left in my experience, second below it and third either middle or right depending if it was 4 or 5 speed...

Only thing that's caused me any (minor) concern over the years is getting to know where reverse is...

[RichardW]

Gone back to a left and up for the first time in 20 years since my first BX TD - the new C4 Pic has a 6 speed box. It doesn't go backwards very well in 6th!

[Paul-R]

I used to love the 5-speed Getrag gearbox in my old rally Chevette. It had a dog-leg 1st gear which was great for rapid take-offs at the start line. Changing into second simply involved pushing the gearknob up with the palm of my hand and letting the spring bias take it into 2nd/3rd gear plane and then continuing the movement upwards. Changing from 2nd to third was then a quick snatch downwards.

I'm not entirely sure where reverse was but I suppose it was to the far right. Whether it was up or down is a bit more difficult to remember but I suspect it was down. There was no collar to lift (I made my own gearlinkage using rod end joints) just a stronger than usual spring bias.

A superb gearbox.

[Gibbo2286]

In my youth left and up was reverse on 3 speed Fords and first on Morris/Austin, Morris/Austin drivers getting for the first time into a Ford often had dented rear bumpers.

[RichardW]

My mate at school jumped in a 2CV in the dark - and could only find 2nd and 3rd! For the uninitiated these have first left and back, 2nd / 3rd on the central plane, and 4th right and forward. Reverse is, IIRC, 'under' 4th.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Oooh perhaps he was 'alone' in that difficulty, then! He sold it and drove Austin Metros for the rest of his life, two of them in about 15years driving; he got on with those a lot better!

If I'd've accepted his 'Metro 'Red Hot' (a Limited Edition trim with the 'Jet Black' shortly prior to the 1990 Rover Metro); and kept it, it'd be worth a fortune now.

[ekjdm14]

Strange, they had a "standard" H-pattern 'box as well... Perhaps it was more the spring bias that caught him out rather than the actual pattern, the A+ units were 4 speed with no biasing springs as I recall, so one didn't have to consciously push left and up but just rest ones hand lightly and push up for first...

[Michel]

Can't say I've ever noticed this issue on any PSA vehicle I've ever driven. Or any vehicle really. The only one I've found tricky was a Skoda like Jim's.