Start Your Engine

During my lifetime the simple matter of starting the engine on your car has undergone a big change.

The 1941 Chevrolet which took my family through World War II and beyond used a starter pedal. On the floorboard of the car from left to right were (1) dimmer switch foot pedal to switch headlights from high beam to low beam, (2) a clutch pedal which had to be depressed to shift gears, (3) the footbrake pedal, (4) the throttle and (5) farthest to the right, the start pedal.

The 1937 Ford which my father brought as a second car had a push button on the dash to start the engine, but we didn’t have this arrangement until we got the 1950 Chevrolet which also used the push button.

Then along came the system where you used the car key to start the engine by turning it far counterclockwise. My 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air had this as did my 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air, my 1968 Chevelle and my various Honda vehicles.

Now things have progressed further where you don’t even have to put a key in the slot to start the car. Have the key in your or in the front seat and push “Start” and the engine fires up!

A friend has this system in his Volkswagon and I’ve seen it on other models.

Also you can start your car remotely so that the car is all warmed up and ready to go when you get into it.

Years ago a Burlington engineer in Lincoln rigged up a contraption using an alarm clock to start his car parked at the Lincoln depot to warm up his car. The alarm was set for a few minutes before his passenger train was due to arrive from Alliance. One day, however, the train was late. The “auto start” functioned perfectly but by the time the late train arrived, the car had been running for several hours and was out of gasoline.

Today there are fewer pedals on the floorboard and the starter pedal on the floor is as extinct as the DoDo bird.