This jaunty Verde Green 1940 Buick Special convertible was one of the very first U.S. cars to come with an often overlooked but vital feature: “Flash-Way” self-canceling electric turn signals both front and rear, a feature that didn’t become standard on all U.S. cars until two decades later.
Turn signals were already common on larger trucks by the 1930s, but until the 1940s, they were fairly rare on U.S. passenger cars. A variety of companies offered them as aftermarket accessories, but they weren’t typical factory equipment, and state laws sometimes limited their utility. In some areas, turn signals weren’t a legal substitute for hand signals, and some jurisdictions permitted only certain pre-approved signal devices (which may have been why the semaphore-type “trafficators” found on older European cars never really caught on here). Electric turn signals that flashed the taillights could also run afoul of other state lighting laws.
Nash is usually credited as the first U.S. automaker to offer factory-fitted directional signals, but references to them in contemporary sources are scarce, and Nash didn’t standardize turn signals until after the formation of AMC in the 1950s. In late 1938, however, Buick announced that its “Flash-Way” directional signal would be standard on all 1939 Buick models, including the base Series 40 Special, the division’s least-expensive model line. As Buick engineer Harry C. Doane explained in a presentation to the Society of Automotive Engineers:
The need for an adequate means of indicating driver’s intention to turn has been present at least since the popular adoption of the closed car, and it seems logical that this development should have paralleled the stop signal which has been in general use as standard equipment on all cars for many years.
It seems unnecessary to dwell at length on this point as all have had the exasperating experience of driving behind the fellow who has failed to lower a window and signal his intention to turn, and the chap who nettles us by wildly waving his arm out of the window, with the final objective of dislodging his cigarette ashes. We, therefore, approach this subject from the interest of public safety as well as utility.
The 1939 version of Flash-Way had directional indicators only in the rear, with bulbs beneath the red plastic lenses on either side of the decklid emblem. Tung-Sol supplied a current interrupter that allowed the bulbs to flash at a rate of 85 to 90 times per minute. Buick felt that flashing lights were the only way to catch the attention of pedestrians and other drivers at a reasonable distance, but not all states approved. Pennsylvania went so far as to demand the device be disconnected on new Buicks registered there, although state officials had relented by March 1939.
These 1939 signals were activated using a small switch on the column-mounted shift lever. A light on the shifter to the left of the switch was supposed to illuminate when the indicators were switched on.
The signals were not self-canceling — the driver had to flip the switch back to center to turn the indicator off.
This arrangement was less than ideal in a variety of ways, so for the 1940 model year, Buick announced a more elaborate setup, called the “Fore-n-Aft Flash-Way Direction Signal.” This was again standard on all models, which, as we’ll see, was rather unusual for the time.
As the “Fore-n-Aft” name implied, there were now directional indicators at the front as well as the rear, flashing the running lights mounted atop the front fenders. Buick argued that placing the front indicators near the headlights made it essential that the turn signals flash so they would be noticed with the lights on; state officials eventually conceded.
For 1940, the rear indicators were still incorporated into the decklid emblem.
However, the 1939 shift lever switch had been cumbersome, so the 1940 Flash-Way system added a small turn signal lever, mounted on the right side of the steering column next to the shifter. Unlike the 1939 switch, the turn signal lever now incorporated a cam-and-pawl self-canceling mechanism: If the steering wheel was turned in the direction of the indicator and then returned to center, a notch in the steel cam would engage the pawl to automatically push the lever back to its off position.
Buick also incorporated dashboard indicators, two arrow-shaped lamps dividing the secondary gauge binnacles on either side of the speedometer. Other than the turn signal lever being mounted on the right rather than the left, this indicator system would present no mysteries to the modern driver. It was the most complete and convenient directional signal setup of its time.
That was a commendable achievement, and Buick’s rivals weren’t doing it nearly so well. Hudson’s “direction indicator,” which became standard on the 1940 Hudson Country Club series (and optional on lesser models), used three buttons in a pod below the steering wheel boss. This pod was fixed to the column, not the wheel, so it would be blocked if the wheel was moved too far off center. There was also no self-canceling mechanism, so you had to hit the small center button to turn them off.
Cadillac and LaSalle standardized their own turn signals for 1940.
Like the Buick Flash-Way system, the Cadillac indicators flashed the front marker light …
… but, like Hudson, Cadillac flashed the appropriate taillight rather than using a separate rear signal lamp.
Cadillac and LaSalle mounted the turn signal lever on the left side of the steering column rather than the right. However, the 1940 system wasn’t self-canceling — you had to move the lever back to center. Turn signals similar to this were optional on most other GM cars for 1940, but only Buick, Cadillac, and LaSalle made them standard.
Buick was very proud of the Flash-Way system, and of making it standard equipment. As this ad from The Buick Magazine emphasizes, “Directional signals, dual windshield wipers and taillamps … are no luxury. You aren’t completely safe without them.”
While the decklid emblem remained a Buick feature through the rest of the 1940s, for 1941, Buick moved the rear Flash-Way indicators to the taillights. I’m guessing that this simplified wiring and assembly.
The turn signal bulbs were now located in the lower rectangular portion of each taillight; the vertical taillight lenses contained the normal tail and stop lights. (In 1949, the indicators were revised so that the signals and the brake lights shared the same bulbs.)
The decklid lenses remained, but they no longer had directional signal bulbs.
A few more rivals followed Buick’s lead by standardizing turn signals for 1941, including Lincoln and Chrysler (on Chrysler-badged cars only). The turn signals used on other GM makes, meanwhile, belatedly added their own self-canceling feature.
However, while the availability of turn signals gradually expanded, many automakers remained curiously reluctant to standardize them. Even Packard charged extra for directional signals on junior models until 1949 (and again on the cheaper Clipper models of the ’50s).
Despite the emphatic tone of the 1939 Buick ad shown earlier, for 1949, Buick quietly moved Flash-Way turn signals to the options list for the Series 40 Special. They weren’t very expensive ($10.60 in 1950), and they remained standard on the pricier Super and Roadmaster series, but they were no longer standard across the line.
The dashboard indicator lights were still on the secondary gauge dials, and through 1950, the turn signal lever was still on the right side of the steering wheel.
For 1951, Buick bowed to peer pressure and moved the turn signal lever to the left side of the steering column.
The standardization of turn signals was a long and arduous process. The editors of Automotive News estimated in January 1950 that directional signals had been standard equipment on about one-third of 1949 domestic cars. However, many automakers still charged extra for turn signals on at least some models, with typical suggested retail prices in the realm of $15 to $20. Buick standardized them (again) in 1953, as did Oldsmobile, but Pontiac didn’t follow suit until 1955, Chevrolet until 1956.
By 1957, almost half the states had passed laws requiring turn signals on new cars, which prodded the remaining holdouts among the automakers to finally add directional signals as standard equipment. Some really dragged their feet: Mercury didn’t standardize turn signals until 1957, and AMC didn’t make them standard on all models until 1958. Below is a tentative list of when each domestic automaker standardized turn signals, compiled by squinting at old brochures and other contemporary documents. (“N/A” means the marque didn’t ever make directional signals standard on all models.)
- AMC: 1958
- Buick: 1939 (but reverted to Special option 1949–1953)
- Cadillac: 1940
- Chevrolet: 1956
- Chrysler: 1941
- Clipper: 1956
- DeSoto: 1953
- Dodge: 1957
- Ford: 1956
- Frazer: 1948 (but reverted to option by 1951)
- Hudson: N/A
- Kaiser: N/A
- Lincoln: 1941
- Mercury: 1957
- Nash: N/A
- Oldsmobile: 1953
- Packard: 1949
- Plymouth: 1957
- Pontiac: 1955
- Studebaker: 1959?
- Willys: N/A
In October 1959, around the beginning of the 1960 model year, Buick sent out press releases to celebrate the turn signal’s 20th birthday and emphasize that Buick had been first to offer them as standard. (They didn’t mention the reversion to option status on the Special, which would have complicated the narrative.) By then, turn signals were standard on all or nearly all new cars — another important safety feature that too many drivers still seldom use.
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Hard to believe there was any dispute amongst the states and manufacturers as to the safety aspect of turn signals. I think it was 1964-65 before backup lights became standard…hard to believe as well…
I had a 1966 Ford Custom 500 without backup lights.
Amazing that some waited so long. Especially in GM for instance, where Buick started it way back, and its ‘Lil brother’ Chevrolet held out til 56.
Does this mean that there could be some 55 Chevy out there with NO factory turn signals?
Crazy to me.
It does, although changing state laws meant that they may have been retrofitted with aftermarket turn signals.
Those whackadoodle variations is state law around cars and trucks must have been a hassle and a half to deal with. CA emissions were bad enough and I’m surprised it took as long as it did for car companies to just put them in all US cars. I remember The Price is Right mentioning California emissions as basically the only option (aside from an automatic transmission and USUALLY a/c on the otherwise stripper models they gave away) straight through the Bob Barker era.
As we’ve had mentioned quite a few times on here and The Autopian what a nightmare the varying regs on commercial trucks were until – I think – the deregulation of the trucking industry at the federal level in the late 70s. But the nonsense on cars from state to state boggles the mind. WTF was PA thinking banning turn signals? It’s not like BMWs and Audis were a thing there back then! 🤣
As a boy I recall there were quite a few early 1950’s cars around without factory turn signals. Many had an aftermarket system fitted, featuring a crude lever/box strapped onto the steering column. A neighbor had both a 1949 and 1952 Buick Special. IIRC, the ’49 had the lever on the right and the ‘52 on the left. I also recall that a late ‘50’s car (Lincoln?) didn’t have a lever but an awkward switch on the dash.
I grew up in Quebec in the early 1970s and at the time, winters were terrible. I sometimes asked my dad about using hand signals in the winter. He admitted that more often than not, he simply didn’t signal. His first car with turn signals was his 1957 Plymouth.
I got my driver’s license in 1970. I had to know and use the standard hand signals, and they came in handy for the 1941 Chevy that I was driving. I always wondered, though, if other drivers even noticed my hand signals. Today they surely wouldn’t.
Fascinating history of something that many of us take for granted.
Turn signal lenses, particularly up front, are to varying degrees style points.
Buick had the right idea in 1941 to separate the turn signal lights from the tail and brake lights. Too bad the US industry didn’t standardize on that.
Looking through the prewar files of a local paper once, I saw a little blurb from traffic court about a doctor who got a citation for pulling out from the curb without using hand signals. His defense was that he had used the newfangled turn signal, but the judge ruled that there was no mention of turn signals in the highway code, so hand signals were still mandatory. The make of the doctor’s car wasn’t mentioned, unfortunately.
Maybe it was a Buick without the option? They were famously “doctor’s cars” back then.
My personal experience is that BMW has yet to install turn signals in any of their vehicles.
🙂 🙂
They’re installed, but BMW driving school experience specifically discourages their use. Audi, too.
The early Buick setup with the lamps in the center badge doesn’t seem to provide enough differentiation between left and right to be useful, especially at night. It would look like the flashing light was in the center of the car, indicating a turn or lane change but not making it obvious if it’s a left or right turn.
I recall my uncle’s Citroen DS (late ’60s or early ’70s model) still had a non-self-cancelling turn indicator, which my dad would often forget when driving it. When (if ever) did self-cancelling turn signals become mandatory in the US?
BTW I love the feature some new cars have where if you nudge the turn signal lever left or right, it automatically and immediately returns to center but still blinks the turn indicators about four times; my ’07 VW was my first car to have it. It saves me from either having to hold the lever down or up until I complete the lane change, or fully engage the signal lever and have to cancel it manually after the lane change.
I’m willing to bet the first object in a car to gain a child’s attention are its “blinker lights”. Unlike any other light on the dashboard, they’re neon green, their significance does not have to be learned (everybody understands an arrow), and they make a merry tick-tock noise. I had a toy dashboard as a tot, and the turn signals and wipers made the strongest impression. I especially liked how cars in the early ’60s integrated the green signals into the instrument panel in interesting ways: big ups to the 1961 Oldsmobile and Plymouth for craftiness. And I felt cheated sitting in a car with one light to handle both right and left turns.
I thought the same thing! Blinkers and windshield wipers. Maybe it is the operating rhythm and repetition – audio/visual – that is attractive to a small child? Very interesting and well-written piece on something we completely take for granted these days. I also had a laugh about the Buick’s manual signal cancellation requirement and thoughts of older drivers leaving them on for miles. I had a ’95 Regal GS sedan with the automatic cancel feature and extra loud sound. It blinked so slowly I could change lanes on two blinks or less.
I’ve got a car with just one flashing dash light for the turn signals! It’s an 80 Porsche 924. Ironically, it goes fancy with one related feature: the side markers illuminate on the respective side if you leave the signal lever engaged with the ignition off – for parking, a common feature on European cars (I’ve got a couple Mercedes with that, although it’s selected with the headlight knob).
I suppose it’s ironic that an upscale sports car would cheap out there, but then, it’s more VW in the components used than Porsche. Even my old Fairlane has left and right arrows, and I can’t think of anything American I’ve personally been in that only had the one dash flasher. It’s not hard to live with, just one of those things that seems like a cheap-out. I wonder what the last car like that might be…
Very interesting – thanks for this history.
One thing I never knew is that direction signals were common on big trucks before they were common on cars. Makes sense – but I never thought about it. I’m curious where the controls were located on trucks; whether they were typically stalk-mounted, on some kind of pod like on the Hudson, or someplace else. Also, given that turn signals were already used on trucks, I’m surprised there was such resistance among state legislatures as far as permitting them on cars.
It wasn’t that there was a backlash among state legislatures towards the newfangled electric turn signals, it was more that state vehicle and lighting codes had last been updated when cars were still having to share streets and roads with horses and horse-drawn carriages, and it took a while for legislatures to get around to updating those statutes. In the meantime, whatever state entities were responsible for regulating that stuff (highway patrol, state police, motor vehicle department, sometimes the department of revenue) sometimes got very snippy about the signals not technically being permitted under Ye Olde Lighting Codicil of 1904, or the vehicle code not providing any exceptions to hand signal requirements.
When legislatures did start taking action to update state laws, many of them also started talking seriously about making turn signals mandatory (which quite a few subsequently did between 1950 and 1960). It was just that such devices hadn’t really been contemplated when their predecessors wrote the existing laws.
There were various kinds of truck and aftermarket turn signals in the ’30s, from at least half a dozen different companies, so I think there was a fair variety. The tradeoff with aftermarket lights was between neat integration and ease/cost of installation — some got rather crude lash-ups because they required the least fuss and cost a few bucks less, and you know how commercial operators often are about that kind of thing.
Fun article, never knew this about Buick. Back-up/reverse lights would be a good subject for a separate article (if not already done for CC).
I grew up in rural/small town Indiana in the 50s-60s and remember cars without turn signals as well as many with the aftermarket boxes attached to the steering column. And I well remember some old-timers refusing to use turn signals even when they had them; instead, they would roll down the window and use hand signals. My driver’s license test required knowledge of hand signals.
I agree with Aaron that here in SoCal, nonuse of turn signals is rampant and annoying, especially with freeway lane changes. My first memory of a new feature people now take for granted – the ability to flash the turn signal for a lane change without fully engaging the turn signal lever for self-cancelling – was while driving my cousin’s new 1967 Mustang.
I still learned those hand signals in drivers’ ed in the mid/late 90s in PA. Maybe related to their weird reticence to allow them mentioned in the article.
Ironically, PA has annual safety inspections- or did until I moved away in 2013. Mostly I think they were to get cars off the road that were structurally unsound due to being more iron oxide and bondo than actual steel, but they’d replace any burnt out bulbs.
Since I moved to California, they’re ridiculous about smogging cars from 1976 or newer, which is nuts because very few cars before OBD2 are in daily use. But no safety inspections, so I see literal trash heaps with half the lights burnt out and cords showing on the tires, but at least they have all their emissions equipment in place!🧐
Absolutely fascinating article, thanks Aaron. I got my driver licence in 1988/9, and needed to know and use hand signals as part of it. It’s still a compulsory part of the New Zealand driver licencing process today.
I’ve always found the position of the indicator stalk to be interesting – typically on the left for left-hand-drive vehicles and on the right for right-hand-drive vehicles. But a number of manufacturers leave the stalk on the left for RHD models, presumably to save costs. I wonder if there are any modern instances of the stalk on the right for LHD models?
I grew up with RHD Ford Cortinas and Sierras, so was well used to the indicator stalk being on the left. Our current RHD Sierra and Peugeots have the stalk on the left, but I always have to double-take when driving my parents’ Subaru Crosstrek!
Good point, Scott. Hit what you think is the indicators, and the wipers come on! Been there, done that. It makes sense to have the stalk on the opposite side to the gear lever, so you’re not trying to indicate and change down with the same hand.
Sadly far too many morons think using them is giving information to the enemy .
All these great pictures makes me want to go buy a nice Buick coupe .
-Nate
There are some places where using them does give too much information to the enemy, and leads quickly to other drivers foreclosing the opening. Dallas during rush hour comes to mind. I’m normally conscientious about signals but in that case I switch to a whole different mode of aggressively defensive driving without signals or else I get blocked from my exits by overtly aggressive drivers.
Occasionally, GM gets it right. Besides the early addition of turn signals, another is the adoption of Daytime Running Lights (DRLs). After Canada made them mandatory in 1991, GM got the NHTSA to approve them for the 1995 model year. Today, DRLs are essentially a universal feature on all cars, with more (if not all) having the user ability to turn them off if desired.
I have no idea what the statistics are of how DRLs have done in reducing accidents, but I’d guess it’s significant and well worth the addition.
Except now with gauge clusters always illuminated and many US cars having DRLs, I see an alarming number of people driving with their lights off at night because they don’t notice anything amiss.
IMO automatic lights should be required if you have DRLs and a constantly illuminated dashboard. I’m not being persnickety here, I see at least one car with no taillights on every time I drive at night. This did NOT used to happen so much.
Wonderful history and much appreciated. My mother’s 1950 Dodge had turn signals. We lived in New York. Perhaps they were mandatory. Being the Wayfarer model (austerity?), it may be the reason that the indicator light on the dash was just one. I was appalled to see the earliest Mustangs with the same feature as their predecessor, the Falcon. How cheap can you get? My 1966 Dodge came standard with, by law, back up lights, traffic hazard switch, turn signals of course, and four seatbelts, one for each outboard passenger. I remember light-duty Ford vans from the mid 1950’s having only one stoplight because that was all that was required. So, the manufacturers, supplied those trucks by state requirements. Heavy-duty trucks featured strap-on turn signal actuators, mounted to the steering column, on the left that also included traffic hazard switches but no self-cancelling feature.
Amazing how late mass adoption of turn signals occurred.
Good thing hydraulic brakes were adopted much sooner.
Thanks for the informative post!
This was a fascinating history! I remember a relative’s 52 Chevy from when I was a kid, and the turn signal lever that was clamped onto the column with a little rubber wheel that turned with the steering wheel for cancelling. They looked too crude to be a factory setup (even to a 10 year old kid) and now I know that I was right.
Was the 57 Imperial with the signal lever on the left side of the dash the last American car to stray from the left-sided lever that became the norm?
The full-size Chryslers stayed with the weird lever on the dash through 1962, adopting a left-side steering column turn signal lever for 1963. Dodge and Plymouth had adopted the standard lever well before that, so I think the 1962 Chrysler might have been the last.