Originally Posted by GrouseK9

@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.

Originally Posted by NoGaBiker

So why do we have to push a button with our thumb before the door unlocks? I
?