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My Escort's shifter reads P-R-N-OD-D-L. One time I had shifted into D for engine braking and forgot to put it back into OD. I was approaching a hill at a little over 40 mph and wanted to bump the trans out of OD so I pulled the shifter down a notch, not realizing it was already in D. Remember there's no 2 on the shifter so it went straight for first gear, which redlines at 38 mph. Some cars will simply not engage a gear if it will over-rev the engine, but apparently my Escort doesn't have this feature. I felt the trans reach for first gear and felt the car start to lurch, and I realized what happened and bumped the shifter back before the engine zinged right past the redline. I've forgotten to put the shifter back to OD from D many times but that's the only time I've ever done that.
In a related story, a manual equipped car is in the works.
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