My 2023 Defender does not have a consistent way to engage drive when in Neutral.
I sometimes am successful doing any of the following while the car is stopped or moving < 5 MPH:
1. Depress shift lock button, pull down shift
2. Pull down shift without shift lock button depressed

Sometimes I do either of these and I get a panel warning telling me I need to step on the brake and depress shift lock, then engage drive, and that has about a 50% success rate.

Anyone have a consistent set of steps for engaging drive from neutral?

 

Update:
Took it in to the dealer, and they acknowledged this is a fairly common issue with the gear shift trigger.
Will update once I get it back from the shop.

 

you might want to post this in the 2020 Defender thread

 

Good call. Will do.

 

This was root-caused to a defective shifter.

Dealer replaced the entire shifter under warranty, and it now works as expected.

Can shift from Neutral into Drive directly by pushing the finger trigger and shifting (no need to put foot on brake).

 

CORRECTION:

The shifter was a red herring and was not defective.
The same issue existed after getting the shifter replaced, and confirmed the same issue/behavior on a brand new 2023 Defender that the dealer had in the lot.
Apparently this is a "safety feature" and prevents shifting from N to D while the car is slowly rolling after coming to a stop.
The only way to engage D from N in this case is to come to a complete stop, push hard on the brake pedal, pull the shifter trigger and pull back to engage D.
I, for one, am NOT a fan of this feature.

 

I had a different issue with MB 400 ls when shifting from N to D while the car was barley rolling backward (Which I do all the time with other cars), the engine shut off and will not restart again. The technician has to perform soft rest to the system, and clear the fault to be able to run the car again.

 

I have this issue too. 2023 v8… It’s embarrassing when I can’t just drive out of a car wash without me having to pit the car in park so I can drive off the conveyor and the rear end bucks

 

Just leave it in Drive with your foot on the brake pedal, it's what everyone else seems to do when stopped in traffic or at a stop signal.

 

Slight dab on the brakes and shift to drive will do the trick!