On Fri, 28 Feb 2014 16:21:10 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per :
From what I can see, there were 30
accidents and 6 deaths because the ignition switch turned the car
off and apparently people can no longer deal with that. How many
cars have all kinds of failures everyday that results
in the engine quitting? Like running out of gas? But 30 ignition
switches shutoff and the result is death and destruction?

I wonder what it does to the power steering and power brakes.

Just to be prepared, I tried cutting the engine on my '72 Chrysler going
down a gravel road.

I'm probably stronger than most and I was barely able to apply the
brakes hard enough to have much effect. And the steering was really a
bear.... I can't imagine the average woman being able to steer that
thing with the engine dead.

What's even worse to me is the way my '98 Suburban handled a failed
alternator. It let the engine suck the battery dry... then the engine
just suddenly died leaving not even enough juice to power the hazard
lights. Almost no brakes, almost impossible to steer, and no way to
put the flashers on..... i.e. if it happened on a freeway for most
drivers the vehicle would probably wind up drifting to a dead stop in a
traffic lane. Very bad Ju-Ju.
And you had NO indication the alternator had failed??? The check
engine light DEFINITELY came on. If you had the hvac blower running,
it slowed down. Your signals slowed down. It it was at night your
heaslights got weak. If it was not dark, and the heater fan was not
running you had almost 2 hours of driving without the alternator
before the engine died, and if you restarted it within an hour of the
failure it would have cranked slowly. My brother drove from Elkhart
Indiana to London Ontario with his van towing a trailer with a dead
alternator and was still able to drive into s service center when it
got too dark to drive without headlights. I had to drive from Waterloo
to London with a spare battery and cables to get him started - and
driving home I had his battery on charge in my vehicle so we could
switch again if necessary.. Made it home 100km (1 hour) with only 4
ways - using my headlights running ahead of him.

At highway speeds as long as the traffic is not heavy, you can guide a
totally dead vehicle to the side of the road and let it coast to a
stop even if it has power steering and brakes. At low speeds in town
is when the fun starts!!