The Ford dealer started this sequence of events for me.
On my 1989 Festiva the transmission seals failed and all the trans fluid leaked out. First I lost 5th gear, then 4th gear, then 3rd gear. By the time I got to the dealer I was going as fast as I dared in 2nd gear. The drive train was still covered within the 100K mile warranty. After a good deal of discussion, the dealer did rebuild the transmission.
A few days later a friend pointed out that my reverse lights remained on constantly. The dealer was disinclined to repair the problem, since that would involve disassembling the transmission a second time to reposition a linkage inside the transmission. When I tired of that discussion and lack of progress, I posted a large sign in the rear window explaining why my reverse light remained on ... and the name of the dealer prominently in large characters.
After about 6 months of that, and my sign looking worse for wear, I tossed the sign and connected the reverse lights to a separate toggle switch. It works almost identically to the brake light arrangement above. Just as a final note, that Ford dealer declared bankruptcy about 5 years later. I hope I had some small part in bringing that to fruition.
=^..^=
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