An embarrassing complaint about the palm style shifter.

[DrPattyCakes]

I drew a really bad bird's eye view of the setting so it's easier to imagine.

So today I was taking a left turn at a green light, and as most do - I creep ahead a bit so I can see if it's safe to go. I crept a bit too far ahead accidentally so I reverse for about 2-3 feet.

As usual, when a light is yellow - everyone ignores that it means yield, and instead just gas it faster.

Since I put myself in reverse, I now need to put it in drive, and get out of the middle of the road since the light is now red, and the other lanes at the intersection need to go.

Here's where it gets embarrassing.

I try to hurry, and put it into drive. When I do that by pushing the shifter downwards, and letting go of it - it recoils back into center position but it puts itself into neutral!
This is an exaggeration, but the shifter shouldn't be like one of those door stopper springs! It should snap into place!

I did this 2-3 times, and revved thinking I was in drive.
Now the lanes to my left wanted to go, but there I was.. struggling with my new fancy Stinger like a 16 year old driving his first manual. All this while I was getting honked at like some dummy. This needs to be fixed

I can imagine someone trying to put their car into drive in a life or death situation but just getting stuck in neutral.

 

[eflyguy]

Not really sure what a "palm style shifter" is but I can only imagine you're talking about the shift-by-wire setup on the GT2, which works the same as high-end BMW, Mercerdes, etc. Foot on brake, move to back to drive or forwards to reverse, that's pretty much it.

If you're finding it difficult to operate, you might want to spend some time off the pubic highway learning how to use it safely.

 

[Aarvix]

Agreed.
I recently did the same thing. Not in the middle of an intersection, but I did feel like a moron revving my engine for what felt like 20 seconds when the light turned green.

 

[turboAWD]

Yeah, a few people have complained about this. There's too much "snap back" force on the shifter - one reason (among others) I went with a GT1.

 

[DrPattyCakes]

Agreed.
I recently did the same thing. Not in the middle of an intersection, but I did feel like a moron revving my engine for what felt like 20 seconds when the light turned green.

No kidding. You think you're super cool driving a nice car... meanwhile you're hoping people don't think you're dumb or a douchebag.

In my case - I ended up needing to cut through the people making the left turns since I was blocking the traffic going straight.
The truck that crept up with me from behind was honking at me, the people trying to go straight honked at me, and the people turning left that I had to cut through honked at me.

I had to give everyone the apologetic wave, and make a stupid expression that pretty much says "yeap, i'm f*cking it all up sorry.. yea I know.. yea sorry it's me I know. Sorry I'm still here... I'm trying I swear".

Not sure if you can imagine the face, but the worst part is holding the expression the whole time I was troubleshooting the shifter.. it sucked.

Also, it was rush hour.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I was going to select the "Friendly" rating, but it was too funny! Sorry. I love candid "confessions". They make me feel better about myself.

I have a GT1 and this will never happen to me. But just this afternoon, I started up, turned the wheel to pull out of where I was parallel parked and pushed the gas pedal and got revs and no forward motion. I hadn't taken it out of "P" yet. Heh!? No hassle, no pressure, just a brain fart, plain and simple.

 

[Flameangel]

I was going to select the "Friendly" rating, but it was too funny! Sorry. I love candid "confessions". They make me feel better about myself.

I have a GT1 and this will never happen to me. But just this afternoon, I started up, turned the wheel to pull out of where I was parallel parked and pushed the gas pedal and got revs and no forward motion. I hadn't taken it out of "P" yet. Heh!? No hassle, no pressure, just a brain fart, plain and simple.

What's kinda more embarrassing is when you rev thinking your'e in drive when your'e in Park and people nearby nearly jump out of their skin and give you a look. ( lucky did this years ago when I was driving my first car, a little Ford Escort and was on P plates )

 

[CeramicGT001]

Had a similar experience while in stop and go traffic. I have a GT1 with the t-handle shifter and when the brakes locked up because someone pulled out in front of me, triggering the collision prevention braking system and this abrupt stop flung the shifter handle into neutral but I didn’t notice. After honking and a saying a few expletives at that other car, I try to start driving and realize I’m just revving in neutral. Small annoyance but will know to watch for this in the future.

 

[DrPattyCakes]

Well you gotta let them know you drive a stinger, and there they are walking around like primitive peasants.

Replying to the guy who revved in park

 

[DrPattyCakes]

Had a similar experience while in stop and go traffic. I have a GT1 with the t-handle shifter and when the brakes locked up because someone pulled out in front of me, triggering the collision prevention braking system and this abrupt stop flung the shifter handle into neutral but I didn’t notice. After honking and a saying a few expletives at that other car, I try to start driving and realize I’m just revving in neutral. Small annoyance but will know to watch for this in the future.

I bet some people thought you were some angry jerk taking it out on everyone by not moving.

 

[Manchuz]

Shit happens to me all the time.....the downs of an electronic shifter. Happens a lot when I'm doing a 3-point turn and have to shift D to R, then back to D. I now train my eye to look at the instrument cluster to make sure I'm in D and not N.

 

[MerlintheMad]

This topic is unexpectedly entertaining and informative. I'll be more cautious than ever now.

Had a similar experience while in stop and go traffic. I have a GT1 with the t-handle shifter and when the brakes locked up because someone pulled out in front of me, triggering the collision prevention braking system and this abrupt stop flung the shifter handle into neutral but I didn’t notice. After honking and a saying a few expletives at that other car, I try to start driving and realize I’m just revving in neutral. Small annoyance but will know to watch for this in the future.

I don't risk any nannies messing with my shifter, since I don't have any nannies. You didn't have the shifter in manual gate, is my guess. 99% of my driving is in manual gate.

 

[CeramicGT001]

This topic is unexpectedly entertaining and informative. I'll be more cautious than ever now.

I don't risk any nannies messing with my shifter, since I don't have any nannies. You didn't have the shifter in manual gate, is my guess. 99% of my driving is in manual gate.

No I was in full on morning commute mode aka Tired + Eco mode + automatic “gate” lol

 

[Legendsk]

I think there are 2 kinds of GT2 owners, those who have already done this and those that will. Generally, it is so embarrassing that always after that we are careful to make sure what gear we are in before pressing the accelerator.

 

[Crisis]

I think there are 2 kinds of GT2 owners, those who have already done this and those that will. Generally, it is so embarrassing that always after that we are careful to make sure what gear we are in before pressing the accelerator.

Agreed. I've done it, but never in traffic. Nice to know that it's not just me.

 

[Capecod]

I went in for an oil change today,1 st time at this dealer, I pull up and see a mechanic standing outside by an open bay, I ask him do you have a drive in or just park and walk in, he says park over there, I pull up and go to back in to an empty space, nothing what the, shift again into rev, that’s when I notice the idiot picture on the dash of a foot pressing the brake ha ha I back into my driveway every day and after the 1st time I never forgot to push the button and brake until today

 

[MrSmoofy]

I've never experienced this. I did one time have an issue where I couldn't put the car into reverse or drive until I put my seatbelt on have not had this happen again.

 

[bpang1]

I've heard of this...to me, these new style shifters are not intuitive at all. What's so great about just letting it stay at a position for D versus going back to a neutral position? Now you have to visually check to see if you are in D versus normal shifters you can feel that it is in D.

I'm happy I have the regular shifter.

 

[Callum]

I’m in my car waiting for it to warm up, laughing your post. Thinking “what a dummy”

I go to leave my garage and fling her into drive...goes into neutral. I try it a few times and indeed she goes bounce into N. I usually don’t let it go like that, but now that I’ve had this happen, I agree. Way to much spring force.

I also find the SBW setup ungodly slow from R to D. Like, frustratingly slow

 

[Tazztattoo]

Shit happens to me all the time.....the downs of an electronic shifter. Happens a lot when I'm doing a 3-point turn and have to shift D to R, then back to D. I now train my eye to look at the instrument cluster to make sure I'm in D and not N.

Can I suggest to anyone experiencing this issue that if despite your best efforts to always select gears in a controlled manner should you continue to find the transmission unexpectedly ending up in neutral that you try this test as per my video here.

This problem always seems to be blaming either a poor selector design with the shift by wire system or operator error. However I can confirm that in some instances it is simply down to a faulty selector which this test can verify as it dispels the common suggestions that the gears are either being selected too quickly / the lever is being allowed to quickly "snap" or flick back into position or the vehicle is not stationary when shifting between drive and reverse.

So starting with the car in park and keeping your foot on the brake at all times to ensure the vehicle always remains completely stationary repeatedly select drive. Although this may seem nonsensical at first as there would never be a need to do this under normal driving conditions it will verify that some selectors are faulty and that sometimes when you select drive in a controlled manner and with the vehicle completely stationary that the transmission moves to neutral which you will see with the behaviour of my faulty selector in the video. Immediately after this test in my car we repeated the same test in the dealers vehicle and no matter how many times we selected drive this time the transmission always remained in drive.

Based on this comparison test with the dealers car they agreed that I have a legitimate fault and contacted Kia corporate who have asked them to replace certain parts in the selector. I am waiting on the parts to be received and can advise forum members of the outcome in due course.

My vehicle is an early production MY18 build and it has been suggested elsewhere on this forum that the problem is isolated to this model year so I would be interested to hear of any MY19 owners who can verify the same fault using my test method here: