...but not the rear cargo door?

Every other car in the known universe that has key-in-the-pocket proximity opening allows you to simply pull on the door handle in the same manner you would if it was unlocked, and the door opens. (Okay, maybe not every other car, but every type of car I've ever owned, from American, Japanese and European companies.) So why do we have to push a button with our thumb before the door unlocks? It's no big deal if I didn't have other cars; I'd just be used to it. But since I've been doing the key-in-pocket-pull-door-handle thing since 2010, and still have it on my wife's MB, I never seem to get used to the "must push button first" regimen. So why does LR have this?

I read somewhere that it helps prevent thievery somehow, having to do with driveby people stealing the RF code or something, but if so, why allow you to just pull on the rear door handle like all my other cars?

 

Yep very strange, the rear door works perfectly with the FOB wireless within 1.5/ 2 feet distance.
By closing, the car signals to confirm the armed condition as before ...

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AND it's reverse of the way I always open the driver's door. I always open it with my left hand. It is very cross purposes for me to pull with my right, let go, go around the door. Some lefties out there - do you open the door right handed when you drive? I'm US so I'm talking about the driver's door/left of Defender. But, I suspect most driver's right drivers open the door with their right hand and this requires the left (opposite). I guess when I think of it, we're all screwed the way they oriented it.

 

The rear cargo door does have an unlock button as well. It's built into the back of the pull handle so you activate the long thin release button when you pull the handle.

On another note, can anyone tell me why we push the gear shift lever forward to select reverse but pull it backward to select "drive" and go forward?

 

@PaulLR - I've always suspected it's backwards because the Engineer who designed it has no understanding of Human Based Design. To me, it's an epic cluster right up there with my wife's Volvo. To make the cruise control +1 mph you push the button for a long hold and if you want +5 it's a short press. I'm sure there are many other examples of ****-poor interface design out in the industry.

 

Yes. Who is Ralph Nader for $500 Alex.

 

Haven't automatic drive selector controls generally been configured that way? I think it's industry standard, not JLR craziness.

 

@Muppetry - I have to admit I've had a lot of vehicles in my few decades of developing into an old man, aka curmudgeon<g>. If I threw out all the stick shifts and stuck with the automatics and then narrowed it down again I'd have two general configurations. Those with the automatic on a stick attached to the steering wheel and those that are generally "on the floor". In both cases, the automatics have gone in one direction: from Park to Reverse to Neutral to Drive to Low. Then back again. It's in one direction down and then back up. I've never had one that goes up and down from Park to the various engagements. Both the old Mini Cooper S and Mini Countryman S I had did the standard stick movements in that order, but I've not tried other JLR vehicles. (The Series IIa I had was stick and the Defender was the standard NAS style). The Defender 2 is the only one I've experienced that goes bi-directional from park. The Defender is the first that goes "Up" from Park to Reverse and "Down" from Park to forward. That seems "backwards" to me, but it's an opinion of one.

The closest I've driven to the Defender was when I once, sadly, rented a Nissan van. That was the only other vehicle I've driven where the "on the floor" automatic was on the dash. It had the same typical configuration: Park down to Reverse past Neutral to Drive and keep away from Low which was next. Again, the Defender is unlike any shifting sequence I've ever had. If they were going to reinvent things, I would have expected it the opposite way.

Can you share your experiences with vehicles of this style transmission? If there are others out there, I've missed them.

 

After 8 years driving a Range Rover Sport, I got used to the automatic proximity sensor. Now, after 6 months, I still forget to click the button on the Defender’s door pull.

If I was to make a wild guess, I think the button is there because most JLR cars now (and presumably in the future) have flush, pop-out door handles. And these do require a hard button to deploy. So, to save costs, they used the same mechanism in the Defender door pulls. I guess it saves an additional sensor.

 

You do need to “push” a button for the rear cargo door, except that the button is behind the door handle. So it’s the same mechanism as all the other doors in terms of the engineering design.