[callmeal]

>Firstly, there is no single equivalent to "slamming on the brakes" for uncommanded nose-down.

Actually in the "old" version, there is.

From TFA:

Older 737s had another way of addressing certain problems with the stabilizers: Pulling back on the yoke, or control column, one of which sits immediately in front of both the captain and the first officer, would cut off electronic control of the stabilizers, allowing the pilots to control them manually.

Which makes the car analogy apt.

[richardhod]

Indeed, any pilot will respond to nose down with ,pulling back on the yoke, or on the joystick, in other and older aircraft. This is a basic flying control, as basic as steering wheel and brakes, making this an excellent analogy. Any system that complicates this in the way described is a terrible system, for the reasons explained above.

[loeg]

Drivers aren't trained to follow checklists and usually don't have dozens of seconds to respond to mechanical emergencies. Cars also don't fall out of the sky if they break down. It's not a great metaphor.

[twtw]

> have dozens of seconds to respond

12 minutes, in this case.

[loeg]

Yeah, I figured it's usually many minutes but didn't want to underplay the stress and difficulty of following a checklist in an extreme emergency. In contrast, car major mechanical failures generally resolve themselves extremely quickly.

[twtw]

And yet the pilots of the previous flight flipped the cutout switches.

EDIT: ... Presumably because it's literally the second thing on the list of things to do in the case of a runaway stabilizer.