Learning to Like the Push-Button Shifter - 2016 Honda Pilot Long-Term Road Test

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Learning to Like the Push-Button Shifter - 2016 Honda Pilot Long-Term Road Test

The push-button shifter in our 2016 Honda Pilot looks overly complicated at first. After a few hundred miles behind the wheel, however, it never bothered me a bit.

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cromagnum_man

Yours is the first positive comment I've heard about the push button transmission.

banhugh

$47k+taxes, 2016 redesigned model, and no electronic parking brake?

tommister2

I haven't seen this in person yet, but in pictures it looks like Honda eliminated storage space to move the shifter from the dash down to the center console. Is that correct? If so, is there a reason they couldn't have put the new shift buttons on the dash where the old one was? I've always been a big fan of the Pilot center console layout. I think this would be tough to get used to.

daryleason

My question with a push-button transmission shifter is what happens if the car needs to be towed and the battery is dead? Since I doubt seriously that it uses a mechanical button, it's probably electrical connectors and servos, how do you put the car in neutral or park if there is no power going to it? Also, is there a way to manually put it in neutral if the wiring is severed to the selector?

dm7279

There's something about an old fashioned lever that just seems better to me. I'm sure I could get used to the buttons, but it would take a while. That said, I'd have put the buttons somewhere else, say on the dash or even on a stalk like Mercedes does to free up more space in the center console. A car like this is all about practicality for families, and I'd want as much room for my junk as possible.

stever

I have a stubby shifter sticking out of the dash in my Grand Caravan. It's handy and out of the way. Unless I'm rowing my own gears, I don't even need that stub sticking out (good place to hang a ball cap I suppose).

My dad had a push button Valiant back in the day, so the concept isn't entirely foreign to me.

daryleason

As @stever said, Chrysler had a push-button transmission in some of their products. I had an Aunt that had one. From my memories (I was little and the car was old even then), pushing the button was like pushing the button on a mid-70s car stereo. You had to PUSH on it to get it to place it in the gear you wanted; almost like it had an actuator arm on a lever behind it.

7driver

daryleason said:

My question with a push-button transmission shifter is what happens if the car needs to be towed and the battery is dead?

I have a feeling that on other cars the shift lever that you think is mechanical really isn't mechanical, or soon won't be.

daryleason

@7driver -> No, I get what you mean about the shift lever. But on every shift lever I've seen, up to, and including the 2014s that I've seen, you had a way to drop it into Neutral, even if the steering column is locked, for towing. This actually leads to a funny story involving my then-5 year old son...

I'd just bought a 1998 Buick Regal GS (used, low mileage), with the center console mounted shifter. I'd had it for about three weeks or so. My son and I were going to go somewhere. I go to start the car and it wouldn't start. No sounds of the solenoid or starter, nothing. I couldn't figure it out. So I start trying to troubleshoot. An hour later, I'm getting really frustrated.

So, I was leaning towards its was a bad ECM. Mainly because I'd had to replace the ECM when I first got it and thought it might have been a bad re-manufactured unit. My son comes back out and wants to "help" me fix it. He's determined he needs to be in the car, by himself, while I go get my tools. So I look down at him, waiting for me to walk away, and go "What did you do, Bob?"

Come to find out, he'd discovered his pinkie finger would fit in the manual disconnect for the gear selector and free up the shifter so the car would go into neutral for towing. However, he didn't get it ALL the way, so the indicator was still showing "park". But it was out enough that the ignition wouldn't turn over because to the car, it was sitting in reverse.

He and I had a long conversation about messing with my vehicles.

allthingshonda

You have to remember that this is a ZF transmission. Like the ZF 8 speed that is used many other vehicles the 9 speed has no mechanical connection for the gear selector. Everybody seems to be free to design what ever electronic selector they choose. Chrysler seems to like the knob and Honda has chosen push buttons. Honda designed transmissions like the 8 speed DCT and the CVT still use a traditional shifter.

daryleason

Ugg...I am a tech geek at heart...but there are some things I think electronics need to be limited on. Weapons is one of them. I don't like having gear on a weapon that requires batteries. I use a similar approach to vehicles. If it's electronic, I start getting leery of it's application regarding components that allow the vehicle to move or stop. Granted, we have electronic fuel injection, electric starters, and so on. But when you're on the side of the road in the middle of the night in the rain, it's easier to track down a loose bolt and tighten it back up, or jerry-rig it until you can get to a better location, than it is to trouble shoot an electronics issue.

stever

I'm in a poorer part of the country and I see a few broken down cars on the side of the road around here. But still nothing like I'd see 20 years ago. Back in the late 70s I'd have to occasionally crawl under the family Volvo with a big screwdriver and move the flywheel over a notch or two to get the starter to engage.

Transmissions are pretty good these days to go into limp mode and get you home. Ever better will be the day when the call will send you a text and tell you what sensor is bad or what band broke.

When the broken timing belt on my last van broke there was no way was I going to tear into that and try putting a length of rope around it. Just call for a tow like I did.

daryleason

@stever , but you made my point...you were able to come up with a mechanical solution to get the vehicle rolling. And I agree, durability on most vehicles has increased greatly. There's just some things I think should remain more "mechanical" than "electrical."

stever

lol, yeah, but I'd still be sitting on the side of the road wondering how to put it all back together. I wish the range would get there - I'd go get an EV and weld the hood shut.

Well, actually I wouldn't - that's where I'd stash the picnic cooler.