Is This The Worse Gear Dial Placement Of All Time?

[OneAlienBoi]

It's come to my attention that a lot of people don't like the rotary gear dial in the maverick. Personally, I love it, and got used to it after a few days of ownership. Even my technology and change adverse 57 year old mother loves it.

But for anyone who thinks the maverick's dial is bad, I found one that's easily 10 times worse. Feast your eyes on the dashboard of the Chrysler Pacifica.

Yep, that's a rotary style gear knob sitting right next to the radio dial and climate controls, ya know, all the dials that the driver is blindly spinning as they're driving down the road at 80 mph. There are a few times while renting this POS that my 68 year old father would feel around for the radio dial, not wanting to take his eyes off the road, and land on the gear shifter instead, and we'd all have to scream before he could turn it.

Unless there's some sort of gear lockout while in motion, this design is genuinely going to get someone killed someday, or at least destroy a few transmissions.

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[bgn]

Yes. I had one while my Maverick was at the dealer. Absolute trash placement. But I doubt the transmission would kick into reverse when going 70 mph. There has to be a lockout.

The rest of the vehicle? Phenomenal.

 

[commadorebob]

Auto transmissions are not going to shift into reverse or park while the vehicle is in motion. That has been standard since the beginning of automatic transmissions. Even Mythbusters showed it won't happen (or that the vehicle could even get the gears to shift anyway). I routinely shift into D before I've finished backing up.

 

[Bruce8858]

It's come to my attention that a lot of people don't like the rotary gear dial in the maverick. Personally, I love it, and got used to it after a few days of ownership. Even my technology and change adverse 57 year old mother loves it.

But for anyone who thinks the maverick's dial is bad, I found one that's easily 10 times worse. Feast your eyes on the dashboard of the Chrysler Pacifica.

Yep, that's a rotary style gear knob sitting right next to the radio dial and climate controls, ya know, all the dials that the driver is blindly spinning as they're driving down the road at 80 mph. There are a few times while renting this POS that my 68 year old father would feel around for the radio dial, not wanting to take his eyes off the road, and land on the gear shifter instead, and we'd all have to scream before he could turn it.

Unless there's some sort of gear lockout while in motion, this design is genuinely going to get someone killed someday, or at least destroy a few transmissions.

It’s a Stellantis . Enough said.

 

[Bob The Builder]

Chrysler products had push button shifting and a slider switch Park selector on the left side of the wheel years before most of you guys were born. They were not very popular then and quickly discontinued to the tree mounted lever. Personally, I do believe I will like the selector knob. Coming from 33 straight years of vintage Rangers I am looking for a different ride. I am confident the Mav will supply that.

 

[GPSMan]

It's drive by wire.

You can't screw up the shifting, only the selector location.

 

[OneAlienBoi]

Yes. I had one while my Maverick was at the dealer. Absolute trash placement. But I doubt the transmission would kick into reverse when going 70 mph. There has to be a lockout.

The rest of the vehicle? Phenomenal.

It was alright, the start/stop was very jolting on our rental, it would shudder the entire vehicle.

 

[icegradner]

Looks like the same spot as some of the 2017-2020 RAM pickups.

 

[OneAlienBoi]

Auto transmissions are not going to shift into reverse or park while the vehicle is in motion. That has been standard since the beginning of automatic transmissions. Even Mythbusters showed it won't happen (or that the vehicle could even get the gears to shift anyway). I routinely shift into D before I've finished backing up.

Wouldn't doing that hurt the transmission? I know modern vehicles are basically unbreakable, but I don't want to test fate .

 

[K5Blazer]

Wouldn't doing that hurt the transmission? I know modern vehicles are basically unbreakable, but I don't want to test fate .

No.
Having accidentally done that a few times on different vehicle in the past, don’t ask me how, I can verify that no damage is done. They might make a seriously scary noise, both of mine did, but they did not engage the wrong gears and blow apart.

 

[commadorebob]

Wouldn't doing that hurt the transmission? I know modern vehicles are basically unbreakable, but I don't want to test fate .

All it does is disengage the reverse until you come to a full stop. Then it swaps over to dive.

 

[Montana]

There are many terrible versions.

Prius is one. Hell, even the RAM's are in that same location as the pic in OP's post.

and then there are these:

even new corvettes are crappy:

 

[Maverickman74]

Nope!

 

[Timothyd]

Yes. I had one while my Maverick was at the dealer. Absolute trash placement. But I doubt the transmission would kick into reverse when going 70 mph. There has to be a lockout.

The rest of the vehicle? Phenomenal.

When I did sea trials on big ship we would do "crash reversal" tests. Full power on to full power reverse. Scary. We said there were two times this happened. At sea trials and just before she sinks.

 

[Maverickman74]

When I did sea trials on big ship we would do "crash reversal" tests. Full power on to full power reverse. Scary. We said there were two times this happened. At sea trials and just before she sinks.

Reminds me of neutral drop burnouts. My 84 extended Econoline wouldn't smoke the tires with it's 302/2bbl. So I would go in reverse a few feet then roll in neutral give her some revs then slip into drive. The AOD held up fine and the tires would break free and burn for a while. It also had the 2 piece driveshaft so it was balanced and braced nicely with 3 joints to share the load. I could also put all my buddies in the way back behind the tires keep it in first and slap the pedal repeatedly to get the front end hopping. the Twin I beams had a lot of droop so I don't know if I ever pulled a tire up but it sure felt like it!

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