zatoman

Consumer reports dings the '18 Q5 for its gear shifter. Says it's not logical. I've never had to think of it. Makes perfect sense to me. Push forward for reverse, pull to rear to go forward (maybe that does sound illogical. Can't get much easier, though I did learn on a "3 on the tree" Does anyone here think the shifter should be redesigned?

zatoman

Sorry. Wrong forum. Though it does apply to Q7

gsobol

Well, it's logical to some, and it does take a bit to get used to - I can't tell you how many times I flipped the wipers on (coming from MB) - however, most people that have driven my Q7 for the first time, would put the car in reverse thinking it was park. The park button is not that obvious first time around.

JT4

I agree with all of this, it does take some getting used to, especially the "park" button.. Funny, I had that (IMO) dumb shifter stalk in my previous MB's and couldn't stand it..

Tiburblium

smacky

Yeah, the only thing I've messed up on the shifter is the parking button. I've turned the car off thinking I pressed P but instead pressed the lock/unlock button on the shifter and shut the car off while still in D. Only happened once but I've been more conscious of it.

The one that really scares me is the one on two of our MBs, where the shifter is where the wipers are on other cars, like you mentioned. I've shifted in to neutral on the highway thinking it was the wipers as it began to rain. That's also only happened once.

HPMan

+1. If Audi did this, then there would be room in the console to actually put cup holders that fit something larger than a kids'-sized drink.

rccoleman

There's nothing wrong or unsafe about what you did, and in fact I do it everytime. Just turning the car off while in gear will automatically switch it to park, without the need to hit the "P" button.

Cadx6

It will do that if you come to a stop in "D". If you put it reverse for any reason (like I have to in my garage) it will not go into park & will shut down in gear. (at least my Q7 & Q5 do)

rccoleman

Interesting, that's certainly not how my 2018 S5 behaves. I generally do as you do and pull into my garage, put the car in reverse to make sure that I've pulled in far enough (I have a piece of tape on the garage floor), hit the "stop" button, and the car immediately puts itself in park. I haven't explicitly hit the "park" button in months.

In fact, the A5/S5 manual says this on page 95:

But it's after a section that says "Applies to vehicles with tiptronic transmission", and it's not clear if the part wording above is part of that section. Since I suspect that your Q5 & Q7 have an S-tronic transmission, maybe that's the difference.