Why Drive and not Forward?

Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one
posed to me by a neighbor.
How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic transmissions?

P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
R- Reverse - Same as above.
N- Neutral - Ditto

D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?

L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.

I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with
was that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"

So anyone got some time to kill?

--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York

> D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?

Good question! I honestly don't know the answer, but this page about
the Hydra-Matic suggests narrowing down the search to the immediate
postwar years:
http://members.tripod.com/starchief5...cles.htm#hydra
"...N-H-L-R, in 1946 it was changed to N-Dr-Lo-R. Later it was changed
to P-R-N-D-L to reflect the addition of a "PARK" feature. "

My guess on *why* would be that D-for-drive looks the least like the
other letters.

I've crossposted to rec.autos.antique in search of somebody who has
either researched or personally remembers those early days of
automatics...

Cheers,
--Joe

"Steve W." > wrote in message
...
> Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one
> posed to me by a neighbor.
> How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic transmissions?
>
> P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
> R- Reverse - Same as above.
> N- Neutral - Ditto
>
> D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?
>
> L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.
>
> I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with was
> that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"
>
> So anyone got some time to kill?
>
> --
> Steve W.
> Near Cooperstown, New York


Just a guess but if you used F for Forward instead of D for Drive you would
have PRNFL, were the F could be mistaken for First not Forward.

In article >,
"Steve W." > wrote:

> Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one
> posed to me by a neighbor.
> How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic transmissions?
>
> P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
> R- Reverse - Same as above.
> N- Neutral - Ditto
>
> D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?
>
> L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.
>
> I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with
> was that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"
>
> So anyone got some time to kill?

Dunno. I'm still trying to figure out why some oil caps say OIL
on them and why some say 710 on them.

aarcuda69062 wrote:
> In article >,
> "Steve W." > wrote:
>
>> Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one
>> posed to me by a neighbor.
>> How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic transmissions?
>>
>> P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
>> R- Reverse - Same as above.
>> N- Neutral - Ditto
>>
>> D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?
>>
>> L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.
>>
>> I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with
>> was that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"
>>
>> So anyone got some time to kill?
>
> Dunno. I'm still trying to figure out why some oil caps say OIL
> on them and why some say 710 on them.



The 710 caps are for British right hand drive imports.... Gee you didn't
know that!! ;->

--
Steve W.

In article >,
"Steve W." > wrote:

> aarcuda69062 wrote:
> > In article >,
> > "Steve W." > wrote:
> >
> >> Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one
> >> posed to me by a neighbor.
> >> How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic transmissions?
> >>
> >> P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
> >> R- Reverse - Same as above.
> >> N- Neutral - Ditto
> >>
> >> D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?
> >>
> >> L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.
> >>
> >> I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with
> >> was that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"
> >>
> >> So anyone got some time to kill?
> >
> > Dunno. I'm still trying to figure out why some oil caps say OIL
> > on them and why some say 710 on them.
>
>
>
> The 710 caps are for British right hand drive imports.... Gee you didn't
> know that!! ;->

But I've seen them on brand new domestics fresh off the car
hauler.

lugnut <Youguessit> wrote:
>The terminology is a left over from the early days of
>automatics when we had P for push, L for leave out, D for
>drag and R for race, N for nuthin'. It cost me my allowance
>forever when I decided to Drag the old man's Packard. All
>hell broke loose when I shifted to Race.

I thought R was when you wanted to Ram the car behind you?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Mar 20, 3:29 pm, "Steve W." > wrote:
> Ever get one of those HUH? questions stuck in your head? Here's the one
> posed to me by a neighbor.
> How did PRNDL become the standard nomenclature for automatic transmissions?
>
> P- Park - Makes sense because that it what it does.
> R- Reverse - Same as above.
> N- Neutral - Ditto
>
> D- Drive, Well you do "drive " the vehicle but why not F- Forward?
>
> L- Low (or some variant of low) Lowest forward gear.
>
> I didn't have a real definite answer for her. The closest I came up with
> was that it was easier to say "Prindle" than "Prinfle"
>
> So anyone got some time to kill?
>
> --
> Steve W.
> Near Cooperstown, New York


"Engage the drivegear" terminology carried over from something else?

Dave

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:36:51 -0400, > wrote:
> On 21 Mar 2008 11:17:43 -0400, (Scott
> Dorsey) wrote:
>
>>lugnut <Youguessit> wrote:
>>>The terminology is a left over from the early days of
>>>automatics when we had P for push, L for leave out, D for
>>>drag and R for race, N for nuthin'. It cost me my allowance
>>>forever when I decided to Drag the old man's Packard. All
>>>hell broke loose when I shifted to Race.
>>
>>I thought R was when you wanted to Ram the car behind you?
>>--scott
>
> Maybe that's where I screwed the pooch!!

That's what the F is for.


John.

On Mar 20, 11:16*pm, "Steve W." > wrote:
> The 710 caps are for British right hand drive imports.... Gee you didn't
> know that!! ;->

no, silly, that's the australian terminology.