The clunkers that I was used to driving many years ago could be started off in 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear, whichever one you fancied, and you could just leave it in 3rd if you were driving in traffic around town. They also never noticed whether they were loaded or not, (except when you went to use the brakes
................... they wouldn't do 90+ (on your own private road!), nor would they give a hard time to passing boy racers. You certainly never even thought about lane 3 on the motorway

