Drew Dowdell

well I'm not sure how a stainless steel exhaust is critical to the safety of the car. I agree on the fuel lines though, it would make all cars most of the way to being ethanol compatible.

still not a coupe

It was only sudden if you weren't watching where it was going.

It ABSOLUTELY is a safety issue. The GM in the list of cars I mentioned was a rental. While one should certainly take the time to learn the emergency off procedure for their own car, in a rental, who is really going to take the time to read the manual for emergency off? Emergency off should be standard across the board. The government is regulating this BECAUSE the SAE (or any other manufacturer group) didn't do it on their own. They had two years to just announce that they were working on such a standard. It could have been 4 interns in a back office... but as long as someone was working on it, the Feds would have stepped back and let them work on it. All it takes is a press release to get that process started and should be enough to keep the feds out of it. Shame on them indeed. Edit: Furthermore, this should have been "sponsored" by Toyota as just a PR campaign. They could have came out and said "We're heading up an SAE task force to establish an industry standard for keyless ignition.

I've gone from a VW to a GM, back to the VW and then on to another VW in a matter of a week, all having keyless ignition, and each one having slightly different starting/stopping routines even among the same brand. I'm a car guy and even I find it annoying that there isn't some standardization. The SAE had their chance to institute some standard when this was on everyone's mind 2 years ago; they didn't do it.

You don't say!

I'm sure the CEO of AMC was thinking the same thing about the Eagle GT back in 1983

Pointless? I don't think so. Without value? potentially saving a life is without value. Reactionary? Well... yes.. your reply to this post is.

I believe I've already made my choice.... though with $20k I could buy 4 or 5 of them.... edit: Doh! I miss the 20 year cutoff. oh well. i'd buy a '92 instead.

I remember it being one of the hangups on selling to him in the first place. GM wanted to be reassured that there was enough capital to cover those liabilities in the event that they folded because those liabilities would revert to GM at least in the U.S. It looks like there clearly isn't enough capital.

There was no way this decision was made within the last 4 weeks.