The search for the perfect family car got me thinking, as I too am looking for a perfect family car.

At one time, the transmission shifter was mounted on the steering column, with the simple up/down shift pattern for "PRNDL". Then eventually the shifter got moved to the console between the front seats when the bench seat disappeared. But the shift pattern was still a simple straight line "PRND12". Now every automatic transmission comes with a weird shift pattern, it zigs and zags, and some even doubles back (the "J" shift pattern of the Jaguar comes to mind). So what has changed? Why do the automatic transmissions come with such weird shift patterns? And I'm not talking about the "shiftable automatics", but even just the simple automatics now have the funny shift patterns. What is wrong with the straight line "PRND12" pattern of years ago?

 

Good question that I don't know the answer to. I've been wondering it myself. As I recall my wife's Outback still shifts straight because I always seem to miss Drive and end up in 3rd when I do drive. Then the buzzy engine gives me a clue. Maybe that's why - for clueless guy's driving the wife's car.

 

That's what I think. We have three Accords with a straight-in-line PRNDL, and I always shift them right into 3, then look down and notch them back up.

My TSX, on the other hand, has this shift pattern:


The shifter kind of "rests" on that last notch when the car is in drive, so you have to swing it to the right to put it in D3. Result is that I never get stuck in D3 (I don't think I've ever even been in D3). Furthermore, since the shift motion is deliberate to move to another gear, the shift lever doesn't have a button, you can just knock it from spot to spot, unlike the Accords which all have a button that must be depressed.

 

I remember some 70's vintage Mercedes-Benz with the zig and zag automatic trans setup.

 

OMG I am so confused. Give me a stick anytime. I don't think I could figure that out.

 

Liz's and Andrew's Civics have straight shift patterns. I too always end up in 3 and have to move the shifter up to D.

 

Maybe other manufacturers are copying the old MB design because they think the consumers associate the funny zig-zag shift setup with "luxury" or "quality"?

 

This is the 1st automatic I have really driven since 1982 when I swore them off.

Titan manual shift 5-speed automatic


I find the zig-zag pattern very well thought out and super easy to live with.

5 to 4 done frequently is just a light tap of the shift lever from right to left
4 to 3 also done frequeently is just a light tap straight back
Both of these shifts the lever moves in a straight line and no matter how hard you hit it, you will only shift 1 gear at a time.

Going from 3 to 2 takes a concentrated effort because you have to move the lever right and then down, you can't just get into 2 by not paying attention, a very nice safety feature. And rarely if I have downshifted into 2 do I donshift into 1, after al, with 379 ft-lbs ya really don't need to.

When upshifting which I do much less often I find the strange gate shape to be very easy to live with and very capable of telling me exactly what gear I'm in without having to look.

 

I remember the "PRNDL" pattern on a two-speed auto in the '62 Chevy I learned to drive in. Then there were the PRND21 versions on other cars, plus a series of push-buttons on the dash in an old Chrysler. And, yes, those weird zig-zags are hard to get used to, especially if you use lots of rentals.

I just spent two weeks driving around in a (FWD) Ford Freelance or Freerange or whatever it's called -- one with three rows of seats and a transverse-mounted V6, somewhat underpowered (but adequate, in an old geezer sort of way) for the Rocky Mountains.

It had an interesting automatic transmission with a straight-line shifter (between the front seats), but only two foward gears positions. On the other hand, the transmission itself had at least 4 gears, maybe with a fifth passing gear. Thing was, it was hard to tell because the torque converter was very "loose", in the sense that you almost couldn't feel the shifts. The tach would change, but there wouldn't be any feeling of change, almost like one of those new continuously variable transmissions.

One good thing about this was that in cruise control the usual underpowered "seeking" that automatics do on hills was not all that noticeable (it still happened, you just couldn't feel the usual lurching).

I wonder if all modern (Detroit?) automatics are this way. HPH

 

CVTs aren't exactly "new".