Normally, I enjoy helping to give you new information, interesting facts you can roll about in your mind and savor and enjoy. This time, though, all I really have for you are more questions, more confusion, and a bit of genuine bafflement. It has to do, like so many of the things I bring to your attention, with a minor detail, really a footnote in the automotive world, but one I nevertheless think is important. It has to do with where Ford moved their horn controls on most of their cars from around 1980-ish to 1984. Most of us instinctively expect horns to be, ideally, in the center of the steering wheel, where it can be smacked or pounded by an unskilled, panicked, or wrathful fist. That’s where The Almighty Himself decreed it should go.
Unfortunately, humans being imperfect as they are, sometimes that horn control gets moved. On many old cars, it’s activated by a chrome ring; on later cars, buttons on the steering wheel activate the horn. And, sometimes, if we stray far enough from the Lord’s healing light, that horn control can end up perched on the end of a silly stalk, sticking out of the side of the steering column, shared with more natural stalk-dwelling controls like turn indicators or headlight dimmers.
And that’s exactly what Ford did. Really, look at this stalk from an ’83 Mustang:
…or an ’82-’84 Escort:
They really did this. Ford moved the horn from the steering wheel center to the turn signal stalk, where you had to push it sideways to honk the horn.
This decision is incredible and baffling to me. Why did Ford choose this? Precisely 0.00% of Americans wanted this change, and if you don’t believe me, I’ll be the first to hop in the seat next to you in your time machine to go back to the ’80s and prove it. We can kill baby Hitler on the way back, it’ll be fine.
The only explanation I’ve ever heard for the change is that Ford wanted their cars to feel a bit more European, and, in that sense, it barely makes sense, because, yes, if you were going to find the stalk-horn anywhere, it’d be on European cars. The French especially seemed to like it; here’s a diagram of a Renault Dauphine’s controls, and it has a (two-tone, even) horn that is sounded by pushing the stalk towards the steering column:
I have owned a car with the stalk-horn setup, my old Reliant Scimitar. I loved that car, but I was never able to get used to that dumb horn-honking method. It never felt right! Of all the controls on a car, the one that inspires the most visceral and physical reactions has to be the horn. You go for the horn in moments of alarm or distress, when some idiot is about to sideswipe you changing lanes or some dummy on a scooter almost bolts out in front of you, and in these moments you just want to smack something and make a loud sound; hence why the center-of-steering-wheel horn setup remains the ideal.
The small fussiness of the turn signal stalk coupled with the strange action of pushing it sideways into the steering column makes this horn-honking method terrible. Sure, it’s fine for calm, controlled, friendly tootles, daintily done with fingertips, but that’s not when you need your horn the most.
I just don’t get this strange decision. And Ford didn’t just keep it to their affordable brands; even Lincoln was forced down this dark path:
… but Ford, at least for those couple of years, did seem to be really leaning into the horn stalk, since it ended up on so many models of their cars (think Panther-platforms, Mustangs and other Fox platforms, Escorts, Fairmonts, and more) and trucks.
By 1984 it was gone, as quickly and mysteriously as it appeared, I suspect screamed out of existence by frustrated owners brandishing snapped-off horn/signal stalks at their local Ford dealers.
I’d love to know the actual reasons why Ford made this decision, but so far I haven’t found anything. I reached out to Ford and see if there’s any further insight to be had, and, if there is, I’ll be sure to update everyone. Was it preparation for airbags in the wheel? Maybe, but there were many other solutions for that, and, besides, none of these cars actually had airbags in their steering wheels.
At this moment, the origin of the horn-stalk remains a mystery, but I’m hopeful for some spirited discussion in the comments that may help us understand this odd choice a bit better. Also, if anyone actually prefers a horn on the stalk, now’s the time to speak up, because I sure as hell would love to hear a defense of this madness.
It lived on in the 92 Tempo I used to own. That very Tempo also lacked cruise control which would have lived on the steering wheel as it did on “higher” trim levels. Instead it had a life saving airbag in the wheel. I always assumed that in the early 90’s Ford couldn’t come up with a cheap enough way to give people an airbag as well as buttons like a horn and cruise control on the steering wheel. So it went on the stalk. It did have the effect of calming me down because by the time I could rage honk the offender was long gone.
Yes the steering wheel and column were designed for air bags. When they started designing them GM already had them as an option on some of their full size cars and there was talk that the gov’t was going to make them mandatory in the not to distant future. Meanwhile the take rate at GM was very low, the gov’t backed off on the mandate and the column lived out its life before air bags became “the next big thing” once again and the mandate eventually came.
Honorable mention must also go to Ford products weird tilt steering wheels during this period. Only the wheel moved, not the steering column along with it. Struck me as weird, it made the steering wheel look like it was broken when you had it tilted to the extremes. In Fords defense, the steering mounted cruise control switches were divine and easy to use.
The thumbnail made me realize the Dashboard from Hard-Driving is from the Mustang…
I dunno, in some ways this seems better. I say this never having used this sort of horn, but I can count the number of times I’ve hit my horn in total panic on one hand. Rather, I usually need my horn to get someone to move at a green light or a small chirp to make sure someone doesn’t pull out in front of me—trying to do that on a steering wheel pad is tricky to modulate a ‘short press’ whereas I feel like tapping a stalk would be easier for that.
I remember late ’70s-early ’80s MGs and Triumphs (British Leyland) having this setup as well. (Last year for MG in the US was ’80 and for Triumph was ’81)
I only encountered this particular foolishness once, in a 1981 Mercury Grand Marquis that the father of a high school girlfriend had. It was mind-boggling.
At the time, I was used to horn buttons on steering wheel spokes, both in my father’s late ’80s and early ’90s Chryslers with the original airbag setup, and in my own ’88 Accord, which had four little buttons on the spokes of the wheel and nothing but an H in the center. There was no airbag in the Honda or any logical reason not to have the horn button in the middle as God and every other thinking being intended, but at least the horn control was, y’know, ON THE STEERING WHEEL.
Dad had a ’71 Mercury [Ford] Capri. As a near infant I remember it had the horn button on the turn signal stalk because mom kept triggering it on accident. Perhaps Ford decided to save money by adopting a Ford of Europe part.
He actually bought a US spec car in Belgium. Drove it around for a year, and then shipped it back to the US and drove it for may years after. Imagine a European delivery Ford program…
The only way it remotely makes sense is if they were doing it ahead of the airbag safety mandate. But even that is a weak justification.
I would suspect cost cutting, no need for the fancy springs and contacts and the like
The 1984 Renault Encore owned by my parents, bought as a year-old used car and dying a rattly death about five years later, was so equipped. There was a perpetual dent in the steering wheel pad which eventually manifested into a permanent white mark where one of them would frequently try to mash that area to honk the horn. Their next car was a 1989 Escort with its horn in the middle as nature and Henry Ford intended.
Torch makes a great point about the lack of satisfaction in the pressing of a dainty stalk instead of slamming the heel of one’s hand into the steering wheel. It’s the equivalent of what we lost when rotary dial phones went away and it’s no longer possible to slam down the receiver when hanging up on someone.
Or to stay in the same century even, that we’ve lost the satisfaction of dramatically shutting the flip phone.
There’s really something to said about tactile engagement with our things.
There’s a flip android phone now!
I’m not untempted. But what I really miss are physical keyboards!
There’s one too!
We had a ’78 Fiesta, and I remember two specific things about it (apart from it shaking violently as you try to reach 88mph): the four-speed manual shift pattern slapped right in between the gauges above the idiot lights, and the horn being on a stalk. Even when I was just barely no longer a toddler I thought it was a weird place to put the horn.
So Ford was doing this a little earlier than you report, but being that this was a Mk1 Fiesta and thus a Euro import, I guess it’s not quite the same thing.
Wow, that’s an actual smart place for putting the shift pattern diagram. I’d never heard of this before, but I love it for its driver-focusedness.
I still remember how much the car magazines hated this, they always called it out in their reviews. This was also one of those rare items that irked Consumer Reports to such an extent, that they let actual emotion creep into their reviews when mentioning the horn stalk.
All I can think about is how this made me feel when the headlight dimmer switch was moved to the stalk. I was dismayed and angered. I had been cheated out of the very visceral and satisfying feel of stomping that little button. Same as the horn! You can’t properly lay on the horn with a stalk. Your finger gets tired. Maybe they did both of these things as sort of a calming measure. It worked on me. I have lost the desire to do either. I also threw away my little footprint dimmer switch cover that matched my gas pedal.
I’d have guessed something to do with airbags, but this foolishness is too early for that.
I was about to type the same! My Parents both drove Toyotas in the early 90s and they had these little horn buttons on each side of the airbag at 9 & 3 o’clock. I remember my father would get so frustrated trying to honk at someone for driving the speed limit in the left lane.
No it isn’t, GM started offering air bags in 1973 as an option which lasted until 1976. With the early “success” of the GM program the gov’t was talking about mandating front air bags in the near future. This column made its debut for the 1978 Fairmont so it would have been designed at a time when they felt they may have needed it to compete with GM or because the gov’t was going to mandate it before the end of the columns expected life cycle.
My Renault 8 not only had the horn on the left stalk, but also had the turn signal on another stalk on the right of the steering column, which made the signaling before the turn then downshift a frenzied affair, since both had to be done with the right hand, while with the left hand I was trying to turn the non-assisted steering wheel as fast as I could to make the turn. It was pretty terrifying for any of my passengers.
My second car was a ’78 Ford Fiesta it had the horn on the stalk. After i got used to it i have to say I didn’t mind it. I could give a quick blast to tell someone they are being a dumb ass and keep both hands on the wheel to maneuver out of the way. Once i got used to it might be the operative phrase and i admit in situations of borrowing the car i can see the point. I might not be the frustrated pound on the horn type like DT
Dang, I just posted a comment about the Mk1 Fiesta that we got…
I love French cars, so I’m a fan of the stalk horn. It adds some dignity to the act of getting mad at lousy drivers. My Citroen’s stalk horn activator has a twist in that you pull the stalk towards you like you’re flashing your brights instead of pushing the stalk into the column. It’s fun.
I need the center of my steering wheel to be a thick pad. That way, when I wail on it because of some a-hole, I don’t hurt my hand.
I had a 1979 Mercury Capri RS fox body with that horn arrangement and the inside door handles were at the bottom of the doors. I loved that car and drove it into the ground.
My dad, in 1980, after test-driving a Thunderbird with this feature- “What horse’s ass moved the horn?”
Seriously though, it’s Ford, the reason is obvious. By combining the horn function into an already-needed stalk, they saved some number of cents per vehicle on steering-wheel horn buttons. Occam’s razor, baby.
Well not as bad as Rim Blow.
“For an extra $89 you can get a rim blow”
“ A what?”
“ It’s for the horn, you squeeze, and it goes off. “
“ Well, that’s intuitive. Sure.”
“ At least they didn’t call it horn grip or honk grab”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rim_Blow
Apparently, the rim blow suffered from dysfunction in cold weather and premature honking as it aged.
It’s very difficult to give someone a rim blow when it’s cold outside and your lips are frozen.
We had a 73 LTD wagon with this new. That horn was total crap. Would either not blow at all, or stick on. Really sucked.
It looks like Ford Australia used it before Ford US did, I’m just going to assume someone enjoyed their temporary placement a little too much, and had to bring *something* usable on their return to Dearborn.
To give Ford more credit than is due… there are possible safety reasons for trying this out? Bear with me here…as JeffN indicated, this could have been a precursor or market pilot to determine what the heck they were going to do with horns when airbags came along…And as an additional thought, I suppose if the horn were on the stalk, you could honk the horn without taking one hand off the wheel? The reason I lean into this is as an option is because way back when, my parents purchased a 1976 Lincoln Continental, where the horn was in a rubber strip embedded on the inner circumference of the steering wheel. The users manual at that time indicated this was for the driver safety, as they did not need to take their hands off the steering wheel to honk the horn, you just had to squeeze the steering wheel :-).
My ’73 Mini 1000 had the same horn arrangement. I only had to slap the center of the steering wheel a few times before I got it in my memory.