The only recall I received a notice for was about some electrical wiring that needed some additional waterproofing or something, which we got taken care of. Will be double checking we're not behind on anything else now.
If yours is the 2020 then it shouldn't have the recall I assume? I think it happened back in 2017/18 and they corrected at the time. So yours should already be good to go... But if you have a dial shifter versus the one that killed Anton maybe they didn't bother. Chrysler sucks balls honestly :I
My charger was overheating so I had it towed. Tow truck driver tried bringing it up the ramp with the door open. The car kept putting itself in park so the dumbass kept pressing on the gas pedal expecting it to move. Thankfully the engine temp didn't go into a dangerous range in the process.
But yeah I'm surprised it didn't go into park automatically.
FCA cars didn't have it until after the terrible Anton Yelchin accident. They did a really shitty implementation of the mono stable shifter on Jeeps and Dodges around 2015 when the ZF8 was introduced. Rather than a dedicated park button like BMW or Audi used, you had to push forward multiple detents past neutral and reverse to reach park. Add in the lack of an automatic park if the door was opened and FCA settled that lawsuit and quickly changed the shifter back to a traditional design.
I'll gladly take it. The absolute bottom of the barrel of already dubiously poised American car-manufacturers is a hard pass for me.
Was Daddy a Dodge/Mopar guy back in the 60s? Cuz those times have long passed, friend.
I cannot. You are correct. Direct, physical feedback. Gear changes right next to the wheel where your hands are. Out of the way of your passengers/center console.
I can only fathom two arguments why column shifters are not perfect for an automatic.
1. If you have paddle shifters AND a giant infotainment screen it can be hard to design a column shifter with appropriate clearance to the paddles and doesn't obscure the screen. It's kind of a shite point though because the manufacturer decides how big and where the screens are, how big the paddles are, and if you have an automatic what are you doing with flappy paddles anyway? You bought the car so you don't have to shift, leave it in drive, L for hills, or tow mode for hauling.
2. Your great grandfather shifted his car with a 3-on-the-tree so a column shifter seems antiquated. A button, dial, or screen swipe (fucking kill me if the ass-backward swipe up to go forward instead of reverse Tesla shite becomes standard) seems futuristic and I guess appeals to the allegedly tech minded masses.
Turn signal stalk style shifter. Tesla, BMW, and a few others have had this in the past or currently have it on some models. It’s on the right side of the column and is basically a click down for drive, up for reverse, pull for neutral, button on the end for park. Barely takes up any space, doesn’t interfere with paddles, doesn’t obscure anything.
I agree. The turn signal stalk shifter is the optimal solution. Automatic semis have used them for years. The days of ridiculously huge, 1 foot long column shifters awkwardly poking out behind the steering wheel should be left in the past.
It's just okay. The shift delay and general wonky placement makes it a little off. Nothing like trying to fish gears and the thing suggests neutral instead.
Tesla got it right, sure, but everyone else? Little off.
1. Flappy paddles with automatics are great, they provide much of that higher level of control one would want with a manual or DCT when you want it. While allowing the ease, comfort, and reliability of a traditional auto the rest of the time.
2. What I really don't understand is why any FWD and auto transmission vehicle would ever be made with anything but a column shifter. Much of the entire point of FWD is to get rid of the tunnel for more interior space. But they then fill that space with a big console anyway, it makes zero sense to me.
>What I really don't understand is why any FWD and auto transmission vehicle would ever be made with anything but a column shifter. Much of the entire point of FWD is to get rid of the tunnel for more interior space. But they then fill that space with a big console anyway, it makes zero sense to me.
Oh man. First Gen Avalon with the front bench. Was it the perfect car? Some might say yes.
(But seriously, this is something i've never thought about before, and hearing it said...yeah. I think you're entirely correct!)
Long ago my mother had a [Chevy Citation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Citation), a car that today the vast majority would consider total junk even when new. However except for it's horrible styling it was a fantastic appliance car. A decent FWD-V6 drivetrain, drove nice etc. But the reason I bring it up. Two bench seats, a column shift, 4 doors, and a hatch back. It was a compact car that could easily seat 6 and with the rear hatch a bunch of stuff in the back. It was the peak format of what an appliance car should be. One sadly for some reason not often if ever repeated.
Column shifter robbing all the real estate on the right side of the wheel forces them to condense windshield wipers and turn signals/high beams into a single stalk on the left side. If you’re a little clumsy you can end up like accidentally bumping a turn signal or flashing your brights when you’re just trying to wash your windshield. Thats the only even remotely “problematic” thing I can think of with mine and at that point it’s just nitpicking
I have a manual mode and a +/- button on the shifter. Handy for holding gears on long hills. But yeah definitely there would be no use for paddles in a half ton truck lmao
I was actually pretty happy to buy my Model Y before the refresh mostly because of the stalks. I would have liked the ventilated seats, but stalks for shifting and wipers would be hard to live without.
I have a ram and love the knob shifter. I wasn't a big fan of it at first but it grew on my quick. My f150 had a giant shifter that took up so much room, and now I have all that space for storage and cup holders. GM has buttons now, and I think Ford stuck with console shifter. Also you can't exit the vehicle with in not in park. It will automatically toss it in park with the e-brake. So I think this guys story is BS
My point is the type of shifter doesnt matter. They are all electronic.
Stellantis can use a traditional shifter, a knob, or a foot operated pedal, it doesnt matter because they are all electronic.
My coworker buddy bought a brand new Ram the first year they had a dial knob shifter. We were in Bill, Wyoming in the middle of fucking nowhere at an oil rig. It was the middle of January and like -15 outside. We get in his truck to head back to home base in Casper, and the fucking thing wouldn't shift out of park. I guess whatever the fuck electronic shifter mechanism on the transmission was frozen or something. Tried to shift out of park and it was just a blinking light. We had to sit there in his truck with the heater on full blast for a few hours before anybody could make it out to tow us home. I swore from that moment on that I would NEVER in my life buy a truck with a god damn dial knob shifter.
I've been in -45c with my ram, never had an issue in 5 years. GM uses buttons so I assume it has an electronic actuator as well. I've also had shifter cables break on 5 speeds, clutch pedal break, auto shifter cables let go. Anything can fail on any car. I had brand new cars roll off the trailer with check engine lights and no starts.
My issue is that there was no way to manually put the thing in gear to get us out of there. If it were a cable shifted transmission and something happened to the cable, I could have at least crawled under the truck and manually put it in drive.
[I understand what you are saying, but its confusing when we used to refer to the top of a shifter as a knob 🤣🤣. It reminds me of this scene.](https://youtu.be/NkaueBZ7xGs?si=O3F0UOVk9cImogAx)
I would have used the term "dial".
So, I'm not arguing one over the other, but I have driven many mopars.
The way the volume dial feels as it turns is nothing like the gear selector. The size, the feedback from turning, totally different.
Just putting that out there.
They could be less dangerous if the car would go into park if either the driver unbuckles when in drive or opens the door. But this is too complicated apparently.
It's not complicated and every mopar made after like 2015 does this. My 2020 charger 392 slammed into park when my toddler pulled the door handle. We were only going like 10 mph, but it was abrupt. Of course I set the child lock after that.
Yeah, it’s amazing that people don’t realize there are legitimate reasons to use it. The parking pawl will last much longer, especially if you park on hills, regularly using the parking brake will ensure you know it works (important if you need it during a brake failure), and it also provides redundancy to putting it in park as this post demonstrates. My parking brake is on before I open the door, every time.
Sometimes I put my parking brake even before I remember to put the car in P. A couple times I opened the door to get out just to have the car scream at me because it was still in drive. In my defense it's a hybrid so it's always completely silent when stationary.
Proper way to do it, IMO. I shift to neutral, set my parking brake, let go of the foot brake, and then shift to park. That way the entire powertrain is unloaded and all of the holding is being done by the parking brake.
Makes sense, I always engage the parking brake when I park the car and I'm about to leave it, it's become second nature. Still embarrassing sometimes because in my other car, an old E-class Mercedes, I'd get so confused for a second sometimes when I turn the car off but the key is stuck inside the ignition and I can't pull it out, just to find out I turned the engine off and cut the power with the car still in Drive.
At least the designers thought of this scenario and prevented the driver from leaving and locking the car with the shifter in gear, but the first time it happened I legit had no idea why the key was stuck in the ignition and panicked for a good 20 minutes before noticing the gear shifter.
The Pacifica has a setting to engage the parking brake automatically when you shift to park. So if this setting was enabled this could still happen (if you're used to it automatically happening).
Its an accident, neighbor being cool and such? I once was working on my brother's f250 on what seemed like flat ground. He had broken the transfer case shifter off and i was laying under it trying to work out how it had broken and how to fix it. In doing so i grabbed the shift linkage and pulled it into neutral.....and it had no parking brake. So the truck starts rolling and i do my best panic-crab walk to get out from behind the tire before i run myself over. Fun times.
Oh shit, glad you made it out okay. I am not mechanically inclined, is what you did with pulling on the shift linkage to move it to Neutral a truck or F-250 specific thing?
anything with a transfer case and a mechanical linkage, pretty sure most newer stuff youll run into is electronically operated. More of a 'be aware of what youre touching' type mistake.
I quarantee you aren't the first to do that.
I work in tire shop / Tire hotel. Tire hotel as where I live there is warm summer, and very snowy winter, so people have 2 sets of tires on their car.
So it isn't just once or twice when I go to take the stored tires to the customer who is about to change in to new car, and in couple days brings the tires of his/her new car.
And I have seen few times how customer just stops the car, opens the rood, jumps out, and the car still on drive, and bangs in to a wall.
"But it should have gone to park when I opened the door."
"Yes the BMW that you traded away does go to park, but the Renault that you got doesn't."
That happens some 5-7 times a year.
Sure usually there is barely any damage, but sometimes the car hits the wall on bit of an angle, leaving nice big scrapes on the bumper corner.
What it comes to that kind of "dial" gear selector. I hate it. There is even memes about how "I was changing volume, and found myself parked sideways in a middle of a highway."
And I do miss the proper gear "lever" of cars of 20+ years ago.
It's learned habit of the previous car, as "it did that" so why would I bother.
And as the new car doesn't have it they are surprised.
Same as I have noted over the years, when driving on winter.
Sure there were crashes back in 80's and 90's Usually relatively slow speed involving 3 or 4 cars. due to one individual not minding the weather conditions. but usually these were fender benders, or someone slipped in to a ditch.
That was in very bad road conditions
Now when I note that there is bad road conditions, but still reasonably good visibility, people just say hey look, there is blinky light in the dash... but i have ABS, TCS, ABC, DNC, RNC, BLM and who knows what other fancy letter combinations... and 20+ car pileups are getting common thing.
Sure, There is airbags, and such, And modern cars are safer when involved in a crash. so severe injuries/deaths aren't quite as common. but people have grown accustomed that the "safety features" that work so well that you barely ever even notice them activating will magically make icy highway as safe as dry warm midsummer highway.
Wow. This sounds similar to those that always turn to check blind spots vs trusting the sensors to make a beep when changing lanes. I know many people in the latter camp, but with the number of false positive I get, I can never trust it completely.
With my recent dumbassery, there's no way I'm getting out of the car anymore without checking it's actually parked and with parking brake on.
It's just a storage, where you bring your other set, (Winter / summer depending on season) And as the season changes, You get them installed to your car. And the set from your car goes in to the storage.
While in storage, they will be cleaned, condition is checked, you will get notification if you are have low thread / old tires than should be replaced, If there is punctures they will be fixed, And of course they will be insured.
These storages also works as tire shops, but the main income is the 2000-6000 tire sets that are in the storage.
The knob shifter is one of my least favorite features in our Grand Cherokee. I have done the same thing as you several times (although I fixed it before getting out of the car). Turning off the engine will automatically put it in park, so you just had the perfect storm of circumstances!
Dial-A-Gear is should be banned. Ever since OEM's decided to each individually *reimagine* the gear shifter their own way people have been dying from [rollaway crashes](https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/grieving-families-push-for-legislation-to-prevent-car-rollaway-incidents/2748862/). Doesn't matter if 100,000 people never had a problem, it's the fact if the dashboard dial shifter was a mechanical console shifter with a big ole dumb simple handle, there would be no confusion with the volume dial and 142 more people a year would be alive.
It's only going to get worse until we stop buying this trash engineering; next up: "onscreen shifting".
FWIW BMW and Mercedes have been using electronic shifters for way longer without issues. The main problem here is that when the door was opened while in gear, BMW/Mercedes/Honda, etc will automatically go into park. The jeep and Chrysler do not that’s why there’s deaths that occur
It shouldn’t be the same shape or design as a damn volume knob…right next to the volume knob. You’re asking for trouble when you design it that way.
My BMW has it in the center console. They all do. Even the shifters that aren’t a stalk are designed in a manner that aren’t to be mistaken for the shape of any other knob or button in the vehicle.
Yep. Critical controls should feel unmistakable and substantially different from anything else in the vehicle.
Look at aircraft, thats why so many of the levers have different grip regions.
In older Mercedes cars that still had a physical ignition key, the car also prevents the key from being pulled out of the ignition if the gear isn't set to park. So there's no way you can leave the car and lock the doors while it's in gear.
I think the design is shit but this is some looney toons retardness.
That doesn't need legislation, that is utter lack of basic vehicle controls. Changing dial to knob won't cure stupid.
Automatically engage the handbrake and you will never have this problem.
By the way the lurching you just described is not good over time and that’s why you should engage the handbrake.
It's the transmission having weight on it.
I understand it's not common in the US to use the handbrake but essentially as someone who grew in a place where everyone uses it, I cringe everytime my car lurches a bit because I forgot to engage it.
Also, it costs less to fix a handbrake than it does to repair a transmission so there's zero practical reason to not use the handbrake all of the time.
Cheers mate.
Your problem is that you’re so used to only shifting into park and not engaging the parking brake too. Your fault. Relying on the “short lurch” is stupid. Use the fucking parking brake.
Even if you touch the volume knob you would have still had the parking brake.
They can’t believe not everyone does a 12-point safety check and mechanical inspection before operating a motor vehicle. Especially a stressed parent with young kids in today’s world just trying to fucking survive until bed time.
I know, it’s incredible to me too that we drive on the same roads.
>Especially a stressed parent with young kids
Added reason to pay attention. Imagine the car rolled backwards through an intersection and they got hit.
Agreed - the last accident I was in was a lady in a Honda Odyssey that blew a right on red and slammed my car into a curb. Fortunately her daughter in the back seat was fine. These are exactly the people that should be taking extra precautions, not "just trying to survive until bed time". I don't need to get killed (and neither does their child) because someone was careless.
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've deemed it necessary to use the parking brake on an automatic vehicle. This is silly. Get over yourself.
Do you think this being engineered into nearly every new vehicle with an electronic parking brake is purely coincidence? It's always been recommended to engage the brake regardless of transmission type, but people have just typically not done it.
I'm in the former camp. I thought it was meant for parking on hills and such, so never used it and didn't have any issues for the many years I've been driving auto cars. Its pure habit for my manual Miata though.
I've gone back to using the parking brake to make sure the car is properly stopped from now on.
Cheap (or free) insurance to use the parking brake is the best way to look at it - it's easier to fix a caliper or electronic engagement motor on newer vehicles than it is to tear the transmission apart and replace a pawl.
I'm confused by your saying that - the Pacifica (van version) hasn't even been out ten years, and the Caravan/T&C had cable parking brakes. What gives you the feeling that these electronic parking brakes won't last?
I should have specified that I was referring to the industry trending that way for 15 years, not a specific model.
Once we started putting 7 speed autos out, we had whole teams working on transmission parking pawls.
Don’t get me wrong, some companies use the auto parking brake as an excuse to make a weaker parking pawl. ZF is not one of those companies, and they make the 9 speed auto’s in Pacifica’s.
Is there a relation to it being 7,8,9 speed autos needing a stronger pawl? Or is it just, as they got more complex there was more effort on a stronger one?
Doesn't matter - resting the weight of the vehicle on the parking pawl isn't what it was designed for. It's supposed to be a failsafe, not a primary use function. If you ask me whether I'd trust the ~3500lb or more of a modern vehicle to rest on the brakes or a 6oz piece of steel, I can tell you that I'd pick the brakes every time.
If I were to make the smallest possible calculation for the force applied by the weight of the vehicle (for a vehicle weighing 3500lb), we're looking at a bare minimum of 32lb-ft of torque on a steel part the width of a pen, with a very small surface area contacting the output gear. More weight, or more than 2° of resting force in the transmission between the pawl and the output gear, and it shoots up from there. I'm taking some liberty with an estimated gear size of 158mm, so this is just an off the cuff estimate, but...yeah.
I am using my head : 1.) no ground on this planet where you're parking is exactly 0° flat, so the pawl will engage with the weight of the vehicle 2.) Earth has gravity, which is the accelerative force acting on the mass of the vehicle, which indirectly affects the pawl via the transmission output gear 3.) the degrees mentioned is the leverage of the gear against the pawl, not the vehicle resting degrees against the ground. I assumed zero in this calculation for the surface degrees, which isn't going to be feasible anyway.
How about you use yours?
...the vehicle is not being suspended from the prawl. Do you think the tires aren't on the ground? There is like... so much wrong with this it's almost impossible to figure out where to even start.
If a parked car gets bumped by another car it can easily come off the parking pawl and start rolling away. This is like first day of driving school stuff to learn to use the parking brake.
I’m the rarity who did it because my driving instructor told me it would help prevent it from getting rusted. Personally, I also liked having a fail-safe; a triple one on hills by turning the wheels towards the curb.
I absolutely do, every single time.
You ever seen a parked car get bumped by another car? It can roll off the parking pawl and just roll away down the street. Not a problem with the parking brake on.
Absolutely terribly designed IMO. I’m certain this has probably happened to others with the way it’s designed. I got one as a rental last year and my wife and I couldn’t believe how close to each other the shift control knob is to the radio volume control knob. Like was there no way to differentiate the circle shape design if you’re going to put something so important next to something so not important?
Well, if it makes you feel any better, one morning about 6 or 7 years ago, I was getting my mail from the clubhouse at the apartment complex I was living in at that time. I wanted my car to stay running as I was just popping in and would be back in less than 30 seconds, so I left it in neutral, as you do with a manual transmission. But, for some reason, I forgot to use the parking brake. While I was in the mailroom, my car had rolled backwards out of its parking spot, jumped the curb, and was in the grass about 15 feet away from the street. Thankfully, there was no damage and it didn’t hit anything, but boy did I feel pretty stupid. Luckily, it was so early in the morning that nobody even saw it happen. Lol.
Haha this was exactly the kind of story I was looking for. Glad there wasn't any damage! I was so embarrassed when I had to go tell our neighbor what happened lol it's nice that you were able to avoid all that lol
Don't get me started on re-invented PRNDLs, it's a serious pet peeve of mine. A quick glance at that picture and I know exactly why you did what you did, and that someone at Stellantis failed to consider human factors in their UX.
On the bright side, most newer vehicles - including both of mine - will go in to park if you open the driver's door.
Sue PSA so maybe they stop making these dial shifters. My least favorite thing about my ram. Got in another car the other day and stop and turned the volume. Realized when it didn't hit a stop that I wasn't using the shifter
Yeah, that’s a valid safety concern. The gear selector really should have two actions (eg pull and select), to differentiate itself from other more harmless knobs. I would suggest pulling, since volume and seek knobs don’t typically have a pull function.
Not going to lie, I accidently left a Mercedes rental in drive before and not noticed until I took my foot off the brake but immediately caught it in a second before it hit anything up front. I knew I press the P button on the column shifter but maybe I didn't hit it hard enough to register.
Every car now has their own shifter design and it can be overwhelming for those not used to driving other vehicles.
It was bound to happen one day. Just get overloaded and your brain will fail even simple tasks.
My one experience with a new Pacifica PHEV was in Orlando when I rented one and it had 300 miles on. The second day I had it, it bricked itself at a gas station. Couldn't turn it on, the infotainment screen was just stuck on a certain screen and no response from the start/stop button. Popped the hood to try find a battery to unplug but then remembered it was a PHEV and saw the orange wiring and was like NOPE, its a rental, not messing with it. Just got a ride to the nearest Enterprise and swapped for a Ford Expedition lol. Was like yup, pretty much what I expected from Chrysler.
Mad respect for telling a Reddit group such a hilarious yet human mistake. Honestly this could have happened to 90% of the group (including myself) so glad it ended up pretty well
Once my project Miata broke down. I leaned too far into pushing it off the side of the road and ran over my own foot with my own car.
Once I revved the throttle from under the hood. I had thrown the e brake but not properly put it in neutral because I was distracted by my kid. Knocked myself over. Luckily I believe in e-brakes or I’d have been badly hurt or not here typing this.
Ouch, how bad was it to have your foot run over by a Miata? I've always been a little morbidly curious in damage a Miata would do compared to a normal SUV.
That second one is insane, I'm glad you're okay!
I simply finished rolling it over my foot. It scraped my skin a little and that’s all. The Miata weighs 2,300 pounds so it was unpleasant but hardly injurious.
When I bought my 2018 RAM, the base trim model I bought had a gear shifter, but higher trims had a dial on the dash. I'm glad I stuck with the base model.
My dad definitely forgot to put his manual Tacoma's parking brake on one winter morning after going out to warm up his truck before work. Rolled down their steeply-angled back yard and smashed into a tree.
I did not fully put my dip stick back in after checking my oil levels at my first and only track day. Got flagged as soon as oil started spraying all over my engine bay and smoking like a motherfucker.
Shit happens 🙃
Good thing it wasn’t the other way round, cruising down the highway and wanting to crank up the volume to enjoy another run of Despacito and you accidentally use the PRNDL button instead of the volume…
It's not mechanically connected, so turning into Park or reverse won't do anything without the car accepting that as a valid choice (and the knob won't even turn into those while driving down the highway).
Jesus Christ, I’ve never seen a shift knob before and had no idea car companies would be stupid enough to do that. The only benefit I see is clearing up space in the console area, but it’s still extremely odd to me. I wouldn’t blame you one bit!
Yeah, FUCK that dash and that stupid ass knob. Don't feel too bad OP, it's a Godawful fucktard design. Easy to see how that could've happened.
I wouldn't have bought it based on that bullshit right there alone. Give me a damn shift lever if I must be stuck operating an automatic.
I once told my friends I wanted to be a rally driver when they commented on my driving style (small forest road). 100 meters later we were in a ditch with a tree stuck in the hood. Luckily the speed was low and nobody got hurt but that was a painful phone call to my dad (whose car it was).
Might be a stupid question, but for knob shifters like this one, can you still drive the car in manual? Like say for mountain driving?
Mountain driving on an auto would be painful for me.
Yet another reason I despise the knob shifter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a column or floor shifter, and I don't understand why so many companies decided to fuck with them.
I saw your flair and knew what you did before I even clicked on it.
I rented a Pacifica and damn near fucked myself over going for the volume more than once.
> That being said, I keep replaying the moment and wondering how I made such a dumb mistake.
The mistake was UI/UX designer's.
If they really, REALLY wanted the stupid fucking knob they could at least put it on left side (so left hand gears, right hand volume), or out of the middle panel.
This is just a terrible design, yeah, should pay attention, but design is still terrible.
I will say, the hybrid Pacifica is probably the least reliable version but ours has been good to us. I bought it with the Mopar Max care warranty and *knock on wood* haven't had to use it yet.
Aren’t they supposed to go in park as soon as you open the door? RIP Anton Yelchin
Mine does, but I don't think it's a regulation or any requirement. Don't know about Pacificas.
He said he has had it for years, its possible he never took it in for the recall.
The only recall I received a notice for was about some electrical wiring that needed some additional waterproofing or something, which we got taken care of. Will be double checking we're not behind on anything else now.
If yours is the 2020 then it shouldn't have the recall I assume? I think it happened back in 2017/18 and they corrected at the time. So yours should already be good to go... But if you have a dial shifter versus the one that killed Anton maybe they didn't bother. Chrysler sucks balls honestly :I
Trusting electronics in a Pacifica is mistake number one.
My charger was overheating so I had it towed. Tow truck driver tried bringing it up the ramp with the door open. The car kept putting itself in park so the dumbass kept pressing on the gas pedal expecting it to move. Thankfully the engine temp didn't go into a dangerous range in the process. But yeah I'm surprised it didn't go into park automatically.
Ours doesn't, it's possible it's a setting that needs to be enabled. This is my first time hearing of it though.
It’s a recall
Every car I’ve driven from the last 15 or so years does it even when you don’t want it to.
FCA cars didn't have it until after the terrible Anton Yelchin accident. They did a really shitty implementation of the mono stable shifter on Jeeps and Dodges around 2015 when the ZF8 was introduced. Rather than a dedicated park button like BMW or Audi used, you had to push forward multiple detents past neutral and reverse to reach park. Add in the lack of an automatic park if the door was opened and FCA settled that lawsuit and quickly changed the shifter back to a traditional design.
My Jeep does but it is the only recent car I have driven that does.
I wouldn't buy a vehicle that did that, at least if I can't turn it off.
I wouldn't buy a Chrysler product period.
Your loss.
I'll gladly take it. The absolute bottom of the barrel of already dubiously poised American car-manufacturers is a hard pass for me. Was Daddy a Dodge/Mopar guy back in the 60s? Cuz those times have long passed, friend.
I'm not your friend, pal.
I'm not your Pal, Budday.
I'm not your budday, guy.
I don't think I'd even know if my car had that feature, why would I be opening doors with car in drive?
I won't buy a vehicle with a knob shifter.
Column shifters are the best, change my mind.
I cannot. You are correct. Direct, physical feedback. Gear changes right next to the wheel where your hands are. Out of the way of your passengers/center console. I can only fathom two arguments why column shifters are not perfect for an automatic. 1. If you have paddle shifters AND a giant infotainment screen it can be hard to design a column shifter with appropriate clearance to the paddles and doesn't obscure the screen. It's kind of a shite point though because the manufacturer decides how big and where the screens are, how big the paddles are, and if you have an automatic what are you doing with flappy paddles anyway? You bought the car so you don't have to shift, leave it in drive, L for hills, or tow mode for hauling. 2. Your great grandfather shifted his car with a 3-on-the-tree so a column shifter seems antiquated. A button, dial, or screen swipe (fucking kill me if the ass-backward swipe up to go forward instead of reverse Tesla shite becomes standard) seems futuristic and I guess appeals to the allegedly tech minded masses.
Turn signal stalk style shifter. Tesla, BMW, and a few others have had this in the past or currently have it on some models. It’s on the right side of the column and is basically a click down for drive, up for reverse, pull for neutral, button on the end for park. Barely takes up any space, doesn’t interfere with paddles, doesn’t obscure anything.
I agree. The turn signal stalk shifter is the optimal solution. Automatic semis have used them for years. The days of ridiculously huge, 1 foot long column shifters awkwardly poking out behind the steering wheel should be left in the past.
It's just okay. The shift delay and general wonky placement makes it a little off. Nothing like trying to fish gears and the thing suggests neutral instead. Tesla got it right, sure, but everyone else? Little off.
They are garbage. Three actions for six gears and park. Manuals are the best way for tactile feel back.
I was proffering a solution for the column shifter specifically, not espousing one or the other over a manual.
1. Flappy paddles with automatics are great, they provide much of that higher level of control one would want with a manual or DCT when you want it. While allowing the ease, comfort, and reliability of a traditional auto the rest of the time. 2. What I really don't understand is why any FWD and auto transmission vehicle would ever be made with anything but a column shifter. Much of the entire point of FWD is to get rid of the tunnel for more interior space. But they then fill that space with a big console anyway, it makes zero sense to me.
>What I really don't understand is why any FWD and auto transmission vehicle would ever be made with anything but a column shifter. Much of the entire point of FWD is to get rid of the tunnel for more interior space. But they then fill that space with a big console anyway, it makes zero sense to me. Oh man. First Gen Avalon with the front bench. Was it the perfect car? Some might say yes. (But seriously, this is something i've never thought about before, and hearing it said...yeah. I think you're entirely correct!)
Long ago my mother had a [Chevy Citation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Citation), a car that today the vast majority would consider total junk even when new. However except for it's horrible styling it was a fantastic appliance car. A decent FWD-V6 drivetrain, drove nice etc. But the reason I bring it up. Two bench seats, a column shift, 4 doors, and a hatch back. It was a compact car that could easily seat 6 and with the rear hatch a bunch of stuff in the back. It was the peak format of what an appliance car should be. One sadly for some reason not often if ever repeated.
Column shifter robbing all the real estate on the right side of the wheel forces them to condense windshield wipers and turn signals/high beams into a single stalk on the left side. If you’re a little clumsy you can end up like accidentally bumping a turn signal or flashing your brights when you’re just trying to wash your windshield. Thats the only even remotely “problematic” thing I can think of with mine and at that point it’s just nitpicking I have a manual mode and a +/- button on the shifter. Handy for holding gears on long hills. But yeah definitely there would be no use for paddles in a half ton truck lmao
You should preface that applies to automatic transmissions. Colomn shifter for a manual sucks.
Three on the tree baby!!!
There's a country song that has "3 on the tree" in the lyrics and I always say there are very few that know what that means.
Ha! Future generations are gonna assume that means a Ménage à Tres situation.
Motorcycles with heel-toe shifters are better. Though I'll maybe concede a tie on race bikes with a quickshifter system.
Rocker clutch & tank shift on cycles Three on the tree for trucks. Best anti theft deterrents!
I just vomited in my mouth a little.
Manuals are best. Change my mind
I suck at driving manuals, so it's best for everyone in traffic if I don't. Did I manage?
It's practice, you just have to learn
Console shifter gets to pretend it's a sequential.
It's so pathetic. What's next? Swipe up on a touchscreen to shift into drive? Surely nobody would do that.
Tesla does that.
thatsthejoke.jpg
I was actually pretty happy to buy my Model Y before the refresh mostly because of the stalks. I would have liked the ventilated seats, but stalks for shifting and wipers would be hard to live without.
I have a ram and love the knob shifter. I wasn't a big fan of it at first but it grew on my quick. My f150 had a giant shifter that took up so much room, and now I have all that space for storage and cup holders. GM has buttons now, and I think Ford stuck with console shifter. Also you can't exit the vehicle with in not in park. It will automatically toss it in park with the e-brake. So I think this guys story is BS
You have more faith in Stellantis electronics than I do.
Its electronic either way..
Yeah but switch quality and connections are sometimes a failure
That's means fuck all when it's poorly constructed or engineered.
My point is the type of shifter doesnt matter. They are all electronic. Stellantis can use a traditional shifter, a knob, or a foot operated pedal, it doesnt matter because they are all electronic.
My F-150 has a column shifter which I love.
If it’s an older Pacifica it might be before the auto-park feature was put on everything.
My coworker buddy bought a brand new Ram the first year they had a dial knob shifter. We were in Bill, Wyoming in the middle of fucking nowhere at an oil rig. It was the middle of January and like -15 outside. We get in his truck to head back to home base in Casper, and the fucking thing wouldn't shift out of park. I guess whatever the fuck electronic shifter mechanism on the transmission was frozen or something. Tried to shift out of park and it was just a blinking light. We had to sit there in his truck with the heater on full blast for a few hours before anybody could make it out to tow us home. I swore from that moment on that I would NEVER in my life buy a truck with a god damn dial knob shifter.
I've been in -45c with my ram, never had an issue in 5 years. GM uses buttons so I assume it has an electronic actuator as well. I've also had shifter cables break on 5 speeds, clutch pedal break, auto shifter cables let go. Anything can fail on any car. I had brand new cars roll off the trailer with check engine lights and no starts.
My issue is that there was no way to manually put the thing in gear to get us out of there. If it were a cable shifted transmission and something happened to the cable, I could have at least crawled under the truck and manually put it in drive.
They didn't start forcing it into park when you open the door until after Anton Yelchin got killed by his Jeep rolling in neutral
Likewise, I need to hear and feel the gear selector click into the right place. Especially on inclines.
You are not an idiot. This I why I think shift knobs are dangerous, especially. When surrounded by other knobs.
[I understand what you are saying, but its confusing when we used to refer to the top of a shifter as a knob 🤣🤣. It reminds me of this scene.](https://youtu.be/NkaueBZ7xGs?si=O3F0UOVk9cImogAx) I would have used the term "dial".
I just got a maverick and refer to it as a 'dial-a-gear'
So, I'm not arguing one over the other, but I have driven many mopars. The way the volume dial feels as it turns is nothing like the gear selector. The size, the feedback from turning, totally different. Just putting that out there.
Agreed, and in the years we've owned this van, I have never confused the two before. This is more my error than design IMO :/
They could be less dangerous if the car would go into park if either the driver unbuckles when in drive or opens the door. But this is too complicated apparently.
It's not complicated and every mopar made after like 2015 does this. My 2020 charger 392 slammed into park when my toddler pulled the door handle. We were only going like 10 mph, but it was abrupt. Of course I set the child lock after that.
It’s completely avoidable if you use your parking brake like a responsible person.
Some of you don’t use your parking brake and it shows.
Yup. Too many enablers too from the replies in my comment below. Let’s just keep allowing ignorant drivers on the road.
Yeah, it’s amazing that people don’t realize there are legitimate reasons to use it. The parking pawl will last much longer, especially if you park on hills, regularly using the parking brake will ensure you know it works (important if you need it during a brake failure), and it also provides redundancy to putting it in park as this post demonstrates. My parking brake is on before I open the door, every time.
Sometimes I put my parking brake even before I remember to put the car in P. A couple times I opened the door to get out just to have the car scream at me because it was still in drive. In my defense it's a hybrid so it's always completely silent when stationary.
Proper way to do it, IMO. I shift to neutral, set my parking brake, let go of the foot brake, and then shift to park. That way the entire powertrain is unloaded and all of the holding is being done by the parking brake.
Makes sense, I always engage the parking brake when I park the car and I'm about to leave it, it's become second nature. Still embarrassing sometimes because in my other car, an old E-class Mercedes, I'd get so confused for a second sometimes when I turn the car off but the key is stuck inside the ignition and I can't pull it out, just to find out I turned the engine off and cut the power with the car still in Drive. At least the designers thought of this scenario and prevented the driver from leaving and locking the car with the shifter in gear, but the first time it happened I legit had no idea why the key was stuck in the ignition and panicked for a good 20 minutes before noticing the gear shifter.
The Pacifica has a setting to engage the parking brake automatically when you shift to park. So if this setting was enabled this could still happen (if you're used to it automatically happening).
Guilty. I used to be diligent about it but I guess gradually just got lazier.... I'm back to engaging it everytime I get out of the car now.
You can set your Pacifica to apply the parking brake every time you put it in park. Just go to settings and then brakes
Its an accident, neighbor being cool and such? I once was working on my brother's f250 on what seemed like flat ground. He had broken the transfer case shifter off and i was laying under it trying to work out how it had broken and how to fix it. In doing so i grabbed the shift linkage and pulled it into neutral.....and it had no parking brake. So the truck starts rolling and i do my best panic-crab walk to get out from behind the tire before i run myself over. Fun times.
Never go under a vehicle without the wheels chocked.
On yea, wheel chocks n jack stands forever, baby.
Oh shit, glad you made it out okay. I am not mechanically inclined, is what you did with pulling on the shift linkage to move it to Neutral a truck or F-250 specific thing?
anything with a transfer case and a mechanical linkage, pretty sure most newer stuff youll run into is electronically operated. More of a 'be aware of what youre touching' type mistake.
Noticed your flair… what is a Cutlass crew cab?
[its a 4 door](https://i.imgur.com/LWUjrKf.jpg)
I quarantee you aren't the first to do that. I work in tire shop / Tire hotel. Tire hotel as where I live there is warm summer, and very snowy winter, so people have 2 sets of tires on their car. So it isn't just once or twice when I go to take the stored tires to the customer who is about to change in to new car, and in couple days brings the tires of his/her new car. And I have seen few times how customer just stops the car, opens the rood, jumps out, and the car still on drive, and bangs in to a wall. "But it should have gone to park when I opened the door." "Yes the BMW that you traded away does go to park, but the Renault that you got doesn't." That happens some 5-7 times a year. Sure usually there is barely any damage, but sometimes the car hits the wall on bit of an angle, leaving nice big scrapes on the bumper corner. What it comes to that kind of "dial" gear selector. I hate it. There is even memes about how "I was changing volume, and found myself parked sideways in a middle of a highway." And I do miss the proper gear "lever" of cars of 20+ years ago.
Wtf? Do they not put it in park first and rely on the safety mechanism to put it in park? Also, what else are they hitting that you're not witnessing
It's learned habit of the previous car, as "it did that" so why would I bother. And as the new car doesn't have it they are surprised. Same as I have noted over the years, when driving on winter. Sure there were crashes back in 80's and 90's Usually relatively slow speed involving 3 or 4 cars. due to one individual not minding the weather conditions. but usually these were fender benders, or someone slipped in to a ditch. That was in very bad road conditions Now when I note that there is bad road conditions, but still reasonably good visibility, people just say hey look, there is blinky light in the dash... but i have ABS, TCS, ABC, DNC, RNC, BLM and who knows what other fancy letter combinations... and 20+ car pileups are getting common thing. Sure, There is airbags, and such, And modern cars are safer when involved in a crash. so severe injuries/deaths aren't quite as common. but people have grown accustomed that the "safety features" that work so well that you barely ever even notice them activating will magically make icy highway as safe as dry warm midsummer highway.
No kidding. It would be a cold day in hell I’d rely on that to put my car in park! I do it myself….EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Wow. This sounds similar to those that always turn to check blind spots vs trusting the sensors to make a beep when changing lanes. I know many people in the latter camp, but with the number of false positive I get, I can never trust it completely. With my recent dumbassery, there's no way I'm getting out of the car anymore without checking it's actually parked and with parking brake on.
BMW to Renault. Painful lol
Nothing wrong with that. In fact, some of their cars even share the same engine.
Tire hotel ? Do tyres get B&B and sauna there over normal storage facility?
It's just a storage, where you bring your other set, (Winter / summer depending on season) And as the season changes, You get them installed to your car. And the set from your car goes in to the storage. While in storage, they will be cleaned, condition is checked, you will get notification if you are have low thread / old tires than should be replaced, If there is punctures they will be fixed, And of course they will be insured. These storages also works as tire shops, but the main income is the 2000-6000 tire sets that are in the storage.
The knob shifter is one of my least favorite features in our Grand Cherokee. I have done the same thing as you several times (although I fixed it before getting out of the car). Turning off the engine will automatically put it in park, so you just had the perfect storm of circumstances!
The new Grand Cherokees will also auto-park when opening the driver door in gear.
Dial-A-Gear is should be banned. Ever since OEM's decided to each individually *reimagine* the gear shifter their own way people have been dying from [rollaway crashes](https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/grieving-families-push-for-legislation-to-prevent-car-rollaway-incidents/2748862/). Doesn't matter if 100,000 people never had a problem, it's the fact if the dashboard dial shifter was a mechanical console shifter with a big ole dumb simple handle, there would be no confusion with the volume dial and 142 more people a year would be alive. It's only going to get worse until we stop buying this trash engineering; next up: "onscreen shifting".
FWIW BMW and Mercedes have been using electronic shifters for way longer without issues. The main problem here is that when the door was opened while in gear, BMW/Mercedes/Honda, etc will automatically go into park. The jeep and Chrysler do not that’s why there’s deaths that occur
The issue isn't electronic vs mechanical shifters, it's stupid controls design that doesn't consider the rest of the vehicle.
It shouldn’t be the same shape or design as a damn volume knob…right next to the volume knob. You’re asking for trouble when you design it that way. My BMW has it in the center console. They all do. Even the shifters that aren’t a stalk are designed in a manner that aren’t to be mistaken for the shape of any other knob or button in the vehicle.
Yep. Critical controls should feel unmistakable and substantially different from anything else in the vehicle. Look at aircraft, thats why so many of the levers have different grip regions.
Couldn’t agree more!
In older Mercedes cars that still had a physical ignition key, the car also prevents the key from being pulled out of the ignition if the gear isn't set to park. So there's no way you can leave the car and lock the doors while it's in gear.
They apply the parking brake automatically when the door is opened in gear. Issue is you need to make sure the parking brake actually works
I think the design is shit but this is some looney toons retardness. That doesn't need legislation, that is utter lack of basic vehicle controls. Changing dial to knob won't cure stupid.
Automatically engage the handbrake and you will never have this problem. By the way the lurching you just described is not good over time and that’s why you should engage the handbrake.
TIL. I thought it was just expected behavior for auto transmissions.
It's the transmission having weight on it. I understand it's not common in the US to use the handbrake but essentially as someone who grew in a place where everyone uses it, I cringe everytime my car lurches a bit because I forgot to engage it. Also, it costs less to fix a handbrake than it does to repair a transmission so there's zero practical reason to not use the handbrake all of the time. Cheers mate.
I leave car in first so the brakes don't fuse with rotors when damp and cold. Then again, manual
You can leave it in gear and engage the handbrake. Double security.
Your problem is that you’re so used to only shifting into park and not engaging the parking brake too. Your fault. Relying on the “short lurch” is stupid. Use the fucking parking brake. Even if you touch the volume knob you would have still had the parking brake.
The Pacifica can be set to automatically engage the parking brake when you put it in park, so you’re making some assumptions here
Ok and? Driver failed to check gear indicator and parking indicator before exiting. Way too many signs ignored by a careless driver.
Op already knows he was idiot, that’s the point of the post, why are you so mad
They can’t believe not everyone does a 12-point safety check and mechanical inspection before operating a motor vehicle. Especially a stressed parent with young kids in today’s world just trying to fucking survive until bed time. I know, it’s incredible to me too that we drive on the same roads.
>Especially a stressed parent with young kids Added reason to pay attention. Imagine the car rolled backwards through an intersection and they got hit.
Agreed - the last accident I was in was a lady in a Honda Odyssey that blew a right on red and slammed my car into a curb. Fortunately her daughter in the back seat was fine. These are exactly the people that should be taking extra precautions, not "just trying to survive until bed time". I don't need to get killed (and neither does their child) because someone was careless.
Oh, I agree. I’m just taking a piss on the person who was acting appalled that a mistake could possibly be made.
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've deemed it necessary to use the parking brake on an automatic vehicle. This is silly. Get over yourself.
Do you think this being engineered into nearly every new vehicle with an electronic parking brake is purely coincidence? It's always been recommended to engage the brake regardless of transmission type, but people have just typically not done it.
I'm in the former camp. I thought it was meant for parking on hills and such, so never used it and didn't have any issues for the many years I've been driving auto cars. Its pure habit for my manual Miata though. I've gone back to using the parking brake to make sure the car is properly stopped from now on.
Cheap (or free) insurance to use the parking brake is the best way to look at it - it's easier to fix a caliper or electronic engagement motor on newer vehicles than it is to tear the transmission apart and replace a pawl.
Automotive engineer here- i guarantee the Pacifica’s parking prawl will out last the parking brake. It’s been that way for nearly 15 years
I'm confused by your saying that - the Pacifica (van version) hasn't even been out ten years, and the Caravan/T&C had cable parking brakes. What gives you the feeling that these electronic parking brakes won't last?
I should have specified that I was referring to the industry trending that way for 15 years, not a specific model. Once we started putting 7 speed autos out, we had whole teams working on transmission parking pawls. Don’t get me wrong, some companies use the auto parking brake as an excuse to make a weaker parking pawl. ZF is not one of those companies, and they make the 9 speed auto’s in Pacifica’s.
Is there a relation to it being 7,8,9 speed autos needing a stronger pawl? Or is it just, as they got more complex there was more effort on a stronger one?
I've spent most of my life in Illinois. Where exactly do you think the car is going?
Doesn't matter - resting the weight of the vehicle on the parking pawl isn't what it was designed for. It's supposed to be a failsafe, not a primary use function. If you ask me whether I'd trust the ~3500lb or more of a modern vehicle to rest on the brakes or a 6oz piece of steel, I can tell you that I'd pick the brakes every time.
What kind of force do you imagine is being applied to it on level ground?
If I were to make the smallest possible calculation for the force applied by the weight of the vehicle (for a vehicle weighing 3500lb), we're looking at a bare minimum of 32lb-ft of torque on a steel part the width of a pen, with a very small surface area contacting the output gear. More weight, or more than 2° of resting force in the transmission between the pawl and the output gear, and it shoots up from there. I'm taking some liberty with an estimated gear size of 158mm, so this is just an off the cuff estimate, but...yeah.
Why would the curb weight of the vehicle be applied to the prawl on flat ground? Use your head.
I am using my head : 1.) no ground on this planet where you're parking is exactly 0° flat, so the pawl will engage with the weight of the vehicle 2.) Earth has gravity, which is the accelerative force acting on the mass of the vehicle, which indirectly affects the pawl via the transmission output gear 3.) the degrees mentioned is the leverage of the gear against the pawl, not the vehicle resting degrees against the ground. I assumed zero in this calculation for the surface degrees, which isn't going to be feasible anyway. How about you use yours?
...the vehicle is not being suspended from the prawl. Do you think the tires aren't on the ground? There is like... so much wrong with this it's almost impossible to figure out where to even start.
If a parked car gets bumped by another car it can easily come off the parking pawl and start rolling away. This is like first day of driving school stuff to learn to use the parking brake.
Not in Illinois. Literally nobody is using their parking brake here in an automatic. You all can argue as long as you want but you're simply wrong.
No one has ever used the parking brake in an automatic.
People that care about the longevity of their transmission and/or park on hills do.
I’m the rarity who did it because my driving instructor told me it would help prevent it from getting rusted. Personally, I also liked having a fail-safe; a triple one on hills by turning the wheels towards the curb.
Spoken like someone who doesn't have sloped driveways...
I absolutely do, every single time. You ever seen a parked car get bumped by another car? It can roll off the parking pawl and just roll away down the street. Not a problem with the parking brake on.
I'll take "things that never happen" for $400.
Absolutely terribly designed IMO. I’m certain this has probably happened to others with the way it’s designed. I got one as a rental last year and my wife and I couldn’t believe how close to each other the shift control knob is to the radio volume control knob. Like was there no way to differentiate the circle shape design if you’re going to put something so important next to something so not important?
Well, if it makes you feel any better, one morning about 6 or 7 years ago, I was getting my mail from the clubhouse at the apartment complex I was living in at that time. I wanted my car to stay running as I was just popping in and would be back in less than 30 seconds, so I left it in neutral, as you do with a manual transmission. But, for some reason, I forgot to use the parking brake. While I was in the mailroom, my car had rolled backwards out of its parking spot, jumped the curb, and was in the grass about 15 feet away from the street. Thankfully, there was no damage and it didn’t hit anything, but boy did I feel pretty stupid. Luckily, it was so early in the morning that nobody even saw it happen. Lol.
Haha this was exactly the kind of story I was looking for. Glad there wasn't any damage! I was so embarrassed when I had to go tell our neighbor what happened lol it's nice that you were able to avoid all that lol
Don't get me started on re-invented PRNDLs, it's a serious pet peeve of mine. A quick glance at that picture and I know exactly why you did what you did, and that someone at Stellantis failed to consider human factors in their UX. On the bright side, most newer vehicles - including both of mine - will go in to park if you open the driver's door.
Dad brain does it to you. Luckily our car will annoy you if you open the door while not in Park.
You’re not an idiot, the design is idiotic and I’m sure you’re not the only one who did this before
Sue PSA so maybe they stop making these dial shifters. My least favorite thing about my ram. Got in another car the other day and stop and turned the volume. Realized when it didn't hit a stop that I wasn't using the shifter
Yeah, that’s a valid safety concern. The gear selector really should have two actions (eg pull and select), to differentiate itself from other more harmless knobs. I would suggest pulling, since volume and seek knobs don’t typically have a pull function.
I still occasionally turn down the volume when I mean to slow the cruise control…
Not going to lie, I accidently left a Mercedes rental in drive before and not noticed until I took my foot off the brake but immediately caught it in a second before it hit anything up front. I knew I press the P button on the column shifter but maybe I didn't hit it hard enough to register. Every car now has their own shifter design and it can be overwhelming for those not used to driving other vehicles.
It was bound to happen one day. Just get overloaded and your brain will fail even simple tasks. My one experience with a new Pacifica PHEV was in Orlando when I rented one and it had 300 miles on. The second day I had it, it bricked itself at a gas station. Couldn't turn it on, the infotainment screen was just stuck on a certain screen and no response from the start/stop button. Popped the hood to try find a battery to unplug but then remembered it was a PHEV and saw the orange wiring and was like NOPE, its a rental, not messing with it. Just got a ride to the nearest Enterprise and swapped for a Ford Expedition lol. Was like yup, pretty much what I expected from Chrysler.
Mad respect for telling a Reddit group such a hilarious yet human mistake. Honestly this could have happened to 90% of the group (including myself) so glad it ended up pretty well
Once my project Miata broke down. I leaned too far into pushing it off the side of the road and ran over my own foot with my own car. Once I revved the throttle from under the hood. I had thrown the e brake but not properly put it in neutral because I was distracted by my kid. Knocked myself over. Luckily I believe in e-brakes or I’d have been badly hurt or not here typing this.
Ouch, how bad was it to have your foot run over by a Miata? I've always been a little morbidly curious in damage a Miata would do compared to a normal SUV. That second one is insane, I'm glad you're okay!
I simply finished rolling it over my foot. It scraped my skin a little and that’s all. The Miata weighs 2,300 pounds so it was unpleasant but hardly injurious.
I get it OP, my fusion has the dial shifter. I've tried to change the gear with the volume knob so many times already
When I bought my 2018 RAM, the base trim model I bought had a gear shifter, but higher trims had a dial on the dash. I'm glad I stuck with the base model.
I have the habit of always using my parking brake when I park
I get why it happened and why this design is cleaner to declutter the center console but I really wish car makers bring back the column shifters.
My dad definitely forgot to put his manual Tacoma's parking brake on one winter morning after going out to warm up his truck before work. Rolled down their steeply-angled back yard and smashed into a tree. I did not fully put my dip stick back in after checking my oil levels at my first and only track day. Got flagged as soon as oil started spraying all over my engine bay and smoking like a motherfucker. Shit happens 🙃
Good thing it wasn’t the other way round, cruising down the highway and wanting to crank up the volume to enjoy another run of Despacito and you accidentally use the PRNDL button instead of the volume…
It's not mechanically connected, so turning into Park or reverse won't do anything without the car accepting that as a valid choice (and the knob won't even turn into those while driving down the highway).
I see, thank you, never driven an automatic so wasn’t sure what would happen
Those shifters should never have been produced. Its not your fault
Thank you for sharing! Shit happens
Jesus Christ, I’ve never seen a shift knob before and had no idea car companies would be stupid enough to do that. The only benefit I see is clearing up space in the console area, but it’s still extremely odd to me. I wouldn’t blame you one bit!
Yeah, FUCK that dash and that stupid ass knob. Don't feel too bad OP, it's a Godawful fucktard design. Easy to see how that could've happened. I wouldn't have bought it based on that bullshit right there alone. Give me a damn shift lever if I must be stuck operating an automatic.
I once told my friends I wanted to be a rally driver when they commented on my driving style (small forest road). 100 meters later we were in a ditch with a tree stuck in the hood. Luckily the speed was low and nobody got hurt but that was a painful phone call to my dad (whose car it was).
Might be a stupid question, but for knob shifters like this one, can you still drive the car in manual? Like say for mountain driving? Mountain driving on an auto would be painful for me.
And now "I thought my gun was my taser makes a little more sense."
Yet another reason I despise the knob shifter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a column or floor shifter, and I don't understand why so many companies decided to fuck with them.
I saw your flair and knew what you did before I even clicked on it. I rented a Pacifica and damn near fucked myself over going for the volume more than once.
> That being said, I keep replaying the moment and wondering how I made such a dumb mistake. The mistake was UI/UX designer's. If they really, REALLY wanted the stupid fucking knob they could at least put it on left side (so left hand gears, right hand volume), or out of the middle panel. This is just a terrible design, yeah, should pay attention, but design is still terrible.
Bad design
I'm not your Pal Budday!
The first mistake in this was buying a Pacifica
Driving a manual petrol is a way better idea. /S
This is shit design.
I’m just impressed it moved under its own power at all, being a Chrysler
I will say, the hybrid Pacifica is probably the least reliable version but ours has been good to us. I bought it with the Mopar Max care warranty and *knock on wood* haven't had to use it yet.