Shifter, "D" should be forward motion and "R" should be backward motion

I actually liked the shift pattern on the Prius, the separate park button never really bothered me as i never used it - i just turned the car off. The stubby little shift on the Gen 3 feels great and reminds me of BMWs latest automatic shifters. I also love the more manual-esque shifters a lot of manufacturers are doing these days.

Forgive my ignorance, but why did the pre-tiptronic era autos have the PRND321L pattern? I've never actually driven a car with this :s

My cars shifter is weird, it doesnt have park, or drive, just an automatic/manual switch. Instead of park you leave it in gear according to the slope. I dont mind it - but it took some getting used to


As for manual shifters, i find the 6 speeds with the ring you have to pull up to engage reverse a great idea.

 

Yeah i must agree, the shift pattern in the prius is not intuitive.

"D" should be where "R" is.

"R" should be where "P" is. (like a manual)

"B" where "D" is now, straight down from where I want "D".

The way it is now, is not forward thinking. I have no idea what they were thing.

 

Maybe they were thinking this.

Since this is such an different car....hmmmmm instead of shifting forward to go foward, we will make it backwards and make them shift backwards to go forward.

You can tell how irritated I am with this.

But nothing is perfect. My other car is a Gen 1 insight. Just like the Prius, they got 99% of it right. The fan speed button only goes one direction up. So if you want to decrease the fan speed by 1 you need to cycle all the way up, and it goes back to low. Why not just put a knob, toggle, or add a down button.

 

I like it the way it is. What I want is to see is engineers putting thought into the design. Since it is all electronic anyway, I think it should be reduced to a dial selector or buttons. It could be more space efficient. This is why the new Prius c gear selector is such a fail. They know the purpose of the c is to get more people into hybrids. A big part of that is to make the transition from traditional cars as seamless as possible. I understand the business reasons for doing so, but from a design point of view, it is gutless.

 

I disagree. You can't push buttons intuitively like you can shift into the correct gear without looking.

 

I strongly doubt it. Too large a portion of us find it quite intuitive, based on experience with past shift patterns.

 

Good point. But how many times is the shifter used in a typical drive vs other functions such as radio, heat, AC, and increasingly, hands-free communications in the form of phone calls and text messages?
During parallel parking it would be annoying to take your eyes off your surrounding to look for buttons though.

Just a thought exercise.

 

True, but it's also a safety issue. If you get into an accident and into a dazed and confused state, you're more likely to get the car back into gear via the shifter than the buttons. If you get spun around and find yourself facing oncoming traffic, would you be able to quickly reverse faster via the shifter or the button without looking?

 

I also see this as a safety issue. In case of Sudden Unintended Acceleration -- with which I have first hand experience in a previous car -- it is essential to be able to get the car out of gear as fast as humanly possible. This car lacks a clutch. The Power button is a bit cumbersome to find, and has a delay. I don't find the Park button quickly by feel, and numerous readers here mention mistakes between that and climate control buttons. But I can quickly slam the shift lever into Reverse by feel alone, instantly disengaging power.

It doesn't matter that nearly all SUAs are pilot error, not machine fault. The driver still needs to quickly disable the beast.

 

They were thinking that they should stay with the standard shifting pattern. Toyota's lawyers probably recalled the legal problems generated by the pushbutton automatics.

Tom

 

From the neutral position (which you get in Prius by momentarily holding joystick to the left) ...

To shift into R, push forward on joystick as you would push an automatic transmission shifter forward

To shift into D, pull backward or down as you would in an auto transmission car.

I can't imagine discussing this any further.

 

We can keep it going plenty longer, like it or not.

What could be easier than the traditional 3-on-the-tree, cut in half so it is twice as easy, with the clutch deleted? For me, that is what the Prius is, and it doesn't get more intuitive than that.

So it comes down to, who will admit to not driving a clutch and/or being too young to have driven 3-on-the-tree.

 

Years ago cars did have different arrangements.... MB for example had the transmission reversed with the USA ...confusion is never good.

Quit frankly I though that we had a NTSB directive on the layout.

This should be set up like a normal transmission -- whey do you need a button to put the car in Park? .... It's silly. The dealers will tell you that people leave the cars "on" all the time and everybody's confused -- that should tell you that the whole starting shifting setup it is a dumb design.

 

Then don't use it. Just bring the car to a stop and power off. (when shutdown is appropriate)

 

It's already set up like a normal transmission as follows: P, R, N, D.

Probably to simplify the design and the fact that it's optional most of the time, as hitting the power button automatically puts the car in park.

 

Every console shifter automatic I've ever owned, you pushed the shifter forward to access R and pulled back for D.

 

How about when I don't want to "power off" -- That may work when you pull into your garage ............ I put my car in park when I am picking someone up at the train station or when I go to the drive-in at the bank.

This is an extra car for us ...... so many will drive it and they will be in other cars also ......... Cars should not be designed so you have to think about something that is well established and works. I believe in improvements -- but this is not one. If the parking brake went on when you hit the park button I could ......maybe see the case - but this is a step backwards.

But thanks for the workaround when you are getting out of the car -- So shutting the car off automatically engages "PARK"

 

Maybe somebody has already said this, but perhaps the beeping sound in reverse is to warn the "push forward to go forward" types that they're actually in R when they do that? Saved me a few times.

The P button seems perplexing, but maybe it's intended to give you a shortcut to get into P while leaving the power on?

All of this seems like a tempest in a teapot. I'm out of here!

 

I've driven manuals, if that is what you mean by "driving a clutch", but am too young to have driven a 3-on-the-tree. Perhaps its a generational thing, that if you are older you like the prius shift pattern more.

The patern is

R
P/N
F Low

With Park/Neutral being toggled by a switch. I don't think it is confusing, but it is a bad user interface. For those that don't understand why some of use park imagine you are waiting for someone and its hot and you want the air conditioning and radio on. Its a normal transmission function.

Toyota seems to have decided on a more traditional shifter on the prius c. This is a car that is likely targeted to people that have never driven 3 on the tree.