> wrote in message
oups.com...
> just popped in from alt legal, where a storm is brewing over this news
> article
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...re/5094840.stm
>
> Can a 318 auto owner (past or present) tell me
> Is it possible to shift into neutral, from drive with the engine
> running ?
> Cheers

It is possible to shift any car from D to N.

I have never seen a lockout in this direction of the shifter. There is also
no lockout when shifting from N to D.

One will encounter a lockout when shifting into or out of P, into R but not
out of R, and into lower gears from D, but not out of lower gears into D.

This is standard operation of an automatic transmission, any variance is at
the whim of the automaker. Since the automakers like to make stuff as easy
as possible for the operators of their products, they generally use as few
lockouts as they can get away with, where the lockout is activated by
pulling the gear shift lever -- on a column shift -- towards the steering
wheel, or -- on a floor mounted shifter -- by pressing a button or
physically moving the shift lever through a series of gates. (This ignores
the requirement to step on the brake pedal as an additional lockout for
getting out of P -- which is a relatively new requirement in the history of
automobiles.)