Is it just me or is the gear selection back to front?

[MHS]

Had our car for 5 days now. Is it just me or is the gear selection back to front?

To the right and forward for reverse.
To the right and back for forwards.

With a reversing camera, but no sensors, I'm going to have to be careful manoeuvring in tight spots, until I get the hang of it!!

 

[maby]

However they did it, someone would have not liked it! Mitsubishi have exactly copied the control from the Prius - and our Outlander was bought to replace a Prius, so it seems fine to me...

actually, it matches the gear shift layout of all automatics I've ever driven - pull back to go forward and push forwards to go backwards - is it simply the case that you have always driven manuals before?

 

[maddogsetc]

Had our car for 5 days now. Is it just me or is the gear selection back to front?

To the right and forward for reverse.
To the right and back for forwards.

With a reversing camera, but no sensors, I'm going to have to be careful manoeuvring in tight spots, until I get the hang of it!!

Don't have a problem with the gear lever but agree with you about the camera and no sensors. Had mine almost 5 months now but would go back to a good set of sensors and no camera tomorrow.

 

[MHS]

However they did it, someone would have not liked it! Mitsubishi have exactly copied the control from the Prius - and our Outlander was bought to replace a Prius, so it seems fine to me...

actually, it matches the gear shift layout of all automatics I've ever driven - pull back to go forward and push forwards to go backwards - is it simply the case that you have always driven manuals before?

A good point, we've driven 5 or 6 autos over the years, including LWB Shoguns for 11 years. Didn't think of the comparison.

I think it's because in the selector returns to a standard position each time, unlike an auto.

 

[endeavour]

I would hazard a guess that it's because if you pull it back into drive then floor it, the weight of your hand will pull it further back into drive rather than pull it out of drive which it would have a tendency to do if the drive stick direction was forward. But maybe I'm the only one flooring my PHEV on a regular basis

 

[jaapv]

The other way around here. I've knocked it out of drive a couple of times with my leg. And when I floor it I usually have two hands on the steeringwheel.....

 

[gwatpe]

The other way around here. I've knocked it out of drive a couple of times with my leg.

jaapv must be driving a LEFT hand drive vehicle. This is the only way that resting a leg on the centre console would push the selector to neutral and the car lose drive.

I had the car lose drive on a RIGHT hand drive model and still cannot work out what happened and have just put it down to a computer glitch.

The car is Japanese made, and they drive on the LHS, so the joy stick control is set up for this.

 

[jaapv]

Correct

 

[gwatpe]

I had queried how the driver could knock the drive out of gear, and no-one mentioned the LHD was the same layout of the joystick as the RHD car. I can see the problem with stretching on a long drive and the possibility of a leg resting on the stick for too long and going into neutral for the LHD car drivers.

 

[Sharky]

I can't think of an Auto I've ever driven that dose not have drive at the bottom. My last Merc had a Colum shift and that was Up = reverse Down = Drive. The one thing that I don't get (but I am getting used to it) is the park button position. Why is it not on the stick? If you are going to design it with a lever selector at least make it have more of a mechanical feel. I know its only a switch but it would have been nice to have a more positive "in gear feel". For all intense and purposes they might as well have put a rocker switch on the dash.

 

[PolishPilot]

I switched to PHEV from manual and on the 3rd day I scratched the rear bumper
selecting R instead of D.

Certainly counter-intuitive, but certainly the standard for automatic gear box.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Guess I'll get used to it, but for those of us who are switching from decades of manual driving, it would ge good in the dark to have the joystick positions illuminated on the joystick!

 

[maby]

Guess I'll get used to it, but for those of us who are switching from decades of manual driving, it would ge good in the dark to have the joystick positions illuminated on the joystick!

There's a picture of it right in the middle of the dashboard display!

 

[Ozukus]

A typical old style automatic gearbox has in order

Park
Reverse
Neutral
Drive
Low (sometimes 1,2 and/or 3, depending on gearbox)

There is a logic to this on the basis that most people park their car nose in and therefore the first thing you would be looking to do is to reverse the car before putting it into drive. The reason why Park isn't in the middle is that park locks the gearbox so it isn't a logical transition to make between reverse and drive so the logical transition is through neutral, and auto transmissions also have a stop that won't allow you to go from drive direct to park without pressing a button.

Ex auto users probably won't see an issue with the layout of the Phev being Reverse Push Forward and Drive Pull Back however logically they could have had it the other way around.

I've also driven many manual cars where reverse gear is actually push lever down to the left or right and then up, as well as push down to the right and then down. Down to the right tends to be the standard because of 5 speed gearboxes however a lot of 4 and 6 speed gearboxes had reverse requiring a forward movement.

 

[rgilyead]

A related query - in my old diesel I would put the car in neutral when queueing. When I stop and flick the PHEV gear lever to N nothing seems to happen (it isn't highlighted on the dash display). When I release the foot brake and put my foot on the gas the car moves off as if it was in D all the time. Was it?

 

[jaapv]

Does it? I must try this out. Anyway, you can also put the car in a temporary neutral by applying the brakes firmly. At lesser pressure the motors will still be powered up.

 

[user 422]

A related query - in my old diesel I would put the car in neutral when queueing. When I stop and flick the PHEV gear lever to N nothing seems to happen (it isn't highlighted on the dash display). When I release the foot brake and put my foot on the gas the car moves off as if it was in D all the time. Was it?

Flicking to N does not work ( for obvious reasons ) - you have to HOLD the lever to the right ( RHD ) for at least 2 seconds for it to select N ( from Drive )

Check the Display in front of you D is Highlighted when in Drive, N is highlighted when in Neutral and R is Highlighted when in Reverse.
( you can go from Reverse to Neutral just by pulling the lever BACK once.... )

 

[Chrispyduck]

Day 3 and I struggle to get back into Neutral from either forward or reverse. Am I trying to hard?

 

[user 422]

see my post just above yours...

 

[Chrispyduck]

Many thanks David

I must stop skim reading and pay attention.

Your suggestion will help me enormously.

Best regards

Chris