Yes. I was very confused when I got a rental car in the U.S. in about 2004 and it had a separate switch and yellow indicator light for "OD". In Europe such a thing was so ancient history that I'd never seen one and I had to read the car's handbook to understand what it meant.
I thought the entire reason to have an OD disable switch is for towing.
Re:They Used To Last 50 Years
by brokenmachine on Tuesday March 21, 2017 @12:20AM
(#13919848)
I seem to remember something in the manual of an old car I had with an OD switch about it making it not change gears repetitively when going up a slight incline?
I don't think OD units are a thing on modern cars anymore. That higher top gear is just going to be another gear inside the transmission. Indeed, on FWD cars with a transaxle, there's really no alternative because it's all a single unit.