Shift Pattern for Automatics "backwards"

[Iconic]

Why is the shift pattern for the automatic cars "backwards"?
(Park towards the driver and 2nd gear toward the dash.)
Or maybe I should be asking why every other automatic, with shifter on the floor, I ever saw has a backwards shift patter.
I haven't run across it on the site yet.
Is this already written up on the site?

[ja17]

Hello,
Not sure what the answere is here but after the W113 cars Mercedes also oriented "park" at the top (away from driver)  on all models. 

[scoot]

Hello,
Not sure what the answere is here but after the W113 cars Mercedes also oriented "park" at the top (away from driver)  on all models. 

...which also means that if you have a 1971 280 SL and a 1971 250 C you will have similar look chrome shift gates with P on top on the 250 C and on the bottom on the 280 SL....   (We have a 67 250 SL and 71 250 C and I'm about to switch the shift gate on the 250 C to have the early style lever and ball knob like on the SL, but the parts are from an ealier 114 sedan that had the chrome rod and ball as the gear selector just like the Pagoda)

[hill]

Why is the shift pattern for the automatic cars "backwards"?

So I can look like an idiot shifting when I jump from the 113 to the 126 or vs. vs.

[scoot]

I spoke incorrectly.   To the best of my knowledge, all 113 cars have P at the bottom.  However, all 114 cars do NOT have P at the top.  I have a chrome shiftgate for a 114/115 that has P at the bottom (earliest) and then P at the top (later) and then plastic (later still).  So it is correct that the 1971 250 C will have P at the top and 1971 280 SL will have P at the bottom, but it is also correct that a 1968 114/115 shift gate will have P at the bottom and be the same shift gate as a 230/early 250 SL.     This only occurs to me as I realize that I'm switching the shift gate on my 1971 250 C to one that is a year or two earlier (with P at the top) in order to have the gear selector rod / ball that looks like that of a pagoda, and I also have a still earlier shift gate from a different 114/115 that has P on the bottom.

[Iconic]

OK, so in summary no one can tell us why so far.
Was the pattern the same (Park towards the driver) on the earliest floor mounted Mercedes Benz?

If so, then maybe the question should be why did they switch to the Park towards the dash setup?
And maybe it is just to conform with the rest of the world??? or some homologation issue?

What was the earliest MB with an automatic on the floor?

[ja17]

Hello,

The early automatics had the opposite linkage geometry with the shift pattern "park" at the top (forward position).  The easiest identifier of these early automatics is to look at their oil pans.  These early units had a "16 bolt oil pan".  Later transmissions had a four bolt pan, then a six bolt pan.
All the "16 bolt" oil pan transmissions had the shift pattern at the bottom.  So this means all the W111, W110, sedans used this arrangement along with all the W113 cars.  Only the early W108, W109 sedans, the early W111  cpe and conv. and W112 cpe and conv.  had these early 16 bolt oil pan automatics.

I am not aware that any of the "16 bolt" transmissions were used in the W114 or W115 cars. I suspect that the unit you have is from a 250 S or SE sedan W108 chassis or an ealy W11l1 cpe.

[scoot]

Hello,

The early automatics had the opposite linkage geometry with the shift pattern "park" at the top (forward position).  The easiest identifier of these early automatics is to look at their oil pans.  These early units had a "16 bolt oil pan".  Later transmissions had a four bolt pan, then a six bolt pan.
All the "16 bolt" oil pan transmissions had the shift pattern at the bottom.  So this means all the W111, W110, sedans used this arrangement along with all the W113 cars.  Only the early W108, W109 sedans, the early W111  cpe and conv. and W112 cpe and conv.  had these early 16 bolt oil pan automatics.

I am not aware that any of the "16 bolt" transmissions were used in the W114 or W115 cars. I suspect that the unit you have is from a 250 S or SE sedan W108 chassis or an ealy W11l1 cpe.

Good answer!  RE: the 114/115 - I may be wrong.  The cover may have come from an early 108 and not an early 114.

[TheEngineer]

DOT specified the shift pattern. All US cars have the same pattern. Presumably it is so that operators don't get confused.

[scoot]

DOT specified the shift pattern. All US cars have the same pattern. Presumably it is so that operators don't get confused.

How can it be that a 1971 280 SL has park on the bottom and a 1971 250 C has park on the top if DOT is saying where it has to be?

[TheEngineer]

When DOT approves a vehicle the manufacturer has some time to comply. It's not like when your wife asks you to do something: In that you have to do it "rightaway" Capice?

[Iconic]

Thanks theengineer.
Now we know why after the early 70's all automatics were the same in the US (and probably worldwide), with park towards the dash.
But, I guess I might never know, but why did Mercedes Benz use the "backwards" pattern for the Pagoda?
What was their reason?

[Garry]

I think it is just MB.  It is a bit like their shift pattern for manual override in their current A Class Auto that is right to left and not forward and back if that makes sense?

[Mike Hughes]

My only observation about the "backwards" W113 autobox floor shift pattern, is that the autobox in our cars lends itself and responds well to manual shifting.  The movement of the shift lever is exactly the same movement one would have made with a 4-speed manual gear shift lever when downshifting from 4th to 3rd, or up-shifting from 3rd to 4th.  Thus it is very natural for one who often drives a manual transmission vehicle to use, doing a manual downshift from "D" to "3 " or the corresponding up-shift from "3" to "D" - one doesn't even have to think about it!

[ja17]

Hello Mike H,

I must agree with your theory! I never really thought of it before, but it does seem natural and makes  "ergonomic sense" !

[Dick M]

With park in this position this 72 year old man, accustom to his other cars, gets his exercise chasing his Pagoda down the driveway

[Iconic]

Dick M, If I had to guess, you actually have done that !!
On a similar note, just after getting comfortable with the car, I was creeping up to a stop sign, I popped it into what I thought was 2nd gear, only to find out it was park. CHIRP ... Luckily I was barely creeping at the time.

Thank you all for your responses. Mike Hughes might be onto something.

[ja17]

Hello Dick,

I would have never guessed you were 72 !  You must stay in good shape by chasing the pagoda !  Seems like I may have had run this race once or twice myself.