So, when they phased out the cheesy white hood release pulls starting in 1990, for the bright red "hooked" levers... Uh, has anyone ever snagged their shoe on that trying to clutch?.. Well, I did and let me tell you, it almost caused a pretty serious accident.

I was approaching heavy traffic on a freeway ramp, when going to downshift, I lifted my left foot up, and was quite shocked when it wouldn't go back down to re-engage the clutch. I mean, there's nothing worse than having your left foot inoperable. I panicked, and had to use my right foot for everything, until I could safely reach down to see what the heck happened... I finally unhooked it after almost tearing my shoe or pants leg off, or whatever the heck got caught on that.

Not cool. I'm gonna say poor, unsafe design Volvo. Last thing you want to do is immobilize the driver. My question is, why not have just a straight lever? Like the old 1800's (if I'm remembering correctly) Or anything but that design..