Does (D)rive and (R)everse seem backwards to you?

[tps]

I seem to be noticing a pattern here. Those who think the LEAF's shifter is backwards seem to be mostly those who compare it to a manual transmission. I learned to drive (40 years ago) in a Renault with a manual transmission, but since those days have driven almost exclusively automatics. I have to say that you'd probably have this problem with any automatic. At least any that I've driven has reverse more forward than drive. The LEAF absolutely does NOT seem backwards to me. It's not as if it should matter that much, because it's fairly rare that one shifts an automatic in traffic, at least I never have.

 

[pasowino]

I mentioned this a while back on a different thread, but now that I have driven my Leaf for a few months, I am constantly confused when driving my boat now. When I want the boat to go forward I keeping putting it in reverse. Since the "stopped" position is in the middle for both a boat and the Leaf, it only makes sense to have to push the handle forward to go forward and backwards to go backwards.

 

[camasleaf]

I did not believe that D and R seem backwards. Still a couple days ago I visited a friend that has a steep downhill drive way. I parked about 4 feet from the garage door. When I left he caution me about the steep drive way. I bragged about the auto parking brake release.

I went in the car, put the seat belt (so that the auto release will work), turn my head around put the shifter in ... D and give a good push to the acceleration pedal. I somehow managed to stop the car in few inches from the garage door.

I had to explain my friend it was not the car, it was me. On the second try, I manage to go back up the hill from a few inches from the garage door without moving forward at all.

My excuse is that my wife drives the car 95% of the time. And my luck was she was not in the car .

 

[GRA]

Hi, Gra,

I like them! Both of those layouts would work for me. Not sure what "B" is, though?

'B' is for cars with a high regenerative braking mode, which some people here have asked Nissan to add to the Leaf. Thinking about it, I think this might be an even better setup:

......D

..B - Eco

......N - P

......R

This way, Eco would be the normal around town or moderately-heavy freeway driving mode, 'D' would be for open freeway cruising with no regen, and 'B' for steep descents and stop and go. You could also have a button on the shifter to select between D and Eco, much as many automatics have an O/D lock-out button. When driving my friend's automatic 4-Runner in the mountains, I'm often going back and forth between O/D (4th gear) off for small descents and minor compression braking and O/D On for cruising/coasting, while for steep descents I've already got O/D off before I pull it into 'L' (or '2', I forget).

Guy

Mulling things a bit further, I think this would be the best of al:

B - D/Eco*

.......N - P

.......R

* 'D/Eco' would be the default driving mode, and you'd select between them with a button on the side of the shift lever, just as many automatics do to enable/prevent a shift from 3rd to 4th gear. From either mode, a momentary pull to the left would toggle 'B' on, and another pull would return you to 'D/Eco'. This way, pulls to the left will only have an effect on your forward mode (or take you out of Park), while a push to the right is solely used to enter Park from N.

Example, if you're cruising along the highway in D and the traffic is concertina'ing a bit, you can change to Eco with a button push to give you a little more braking and then back to D when it opens out. If you need more braking you can pull left for B, or else you could go direct from D to B skipping Eco altogether, for heavier braking in a hurry.

Guy

Guy