I have always been sort of a car nut, even as a kid. My undergraduate major was history. So, if you combine these two interests of mine, you understand why I have researched and internalized a lot of automotive history.
Here’s another little tidbit of automotive history relating to the Dodge brothers–Although the shift pattern for the common three-speed floor shifts of the day were considered to be standardized by the 1920s, for a number of years, the Dodge brothers insisted on using a different shift pattern!
If I remember correctly, reverse was located where 1st gear was located on every other manufacturer’s shift pattern, with a resulting different location for 2nd and 3rd as well. For the experienced Dodge owner, this was not too much of a problem, but when Dodges were taken to parking lots, parking attendants had an unfortunate habit of crashing those Dodges into other cars when they mistook reverse for first gear. After a few years, the Dodge brothers succumbed to a lot of negative publicity and they adapted the same shift pattern that everyone else in the industry used.