Any car is going to have its share of ergonomics issues, and the Kona is
no exception.
I don't like its seats, for example, but for me that's true of just about
any modern car -- they are all about "lumbar support", and the result is
that they just pull my ass down into the crack between seat-cushion and
back so it feels like the seat is trying to fold me in half.
The Kona in particular has a pushbutton shift control in the center console,
which frankly is badly placed and basically has *no* usable tactile cues
to facilitate operation without glancing down at it.
So while fumbling around to go between Drive and Neutral, which I often do at traffic lights and other slow maneuvering, it was far too easy to unintentionally hit Park. At any speed over 1 or 2 mph all that produces is warning beeping, but if the car is moving slowly enough, SLAM, the park-lock engages with the expected abrupt, lurching stop as a result. After about the third go-round of that I'd had enough, and it was time to make Park far less easily available. This sharply brings home the rationale for the Prius design of having the Park button distinctly separate from the little lever shifter. People didn't understand it at the time, but I bet if Park had been integrated into shifter movement that was somewhat nonstandard already, they would have been hollering for something different right quick. |
As with any "automatic transmission" type of arrangement with built-in
creep, it's almost impossible to come to a complete stop without that little
suspension-unloading lurch.
I've always hated that, it's against my smooth-driving principles, so I
usually pop into Neutral at a full stop until rolling ceases, and then
back into Drive when about to take off again.
It's a personal choice and not what everyone would want to do, but the
*ability* to do it as I choose is important.
The Kona is a little more insistent about a foot on the service brake pedal for most shifting operations, but it turns out this is rather relaxed for D and N transitions. If the car is rolling basically at all, over 2 mph or so, a N ==> D shift is doable. So at speed, one can freely go to N to, for example, clean off rusted-up brake rotors down a convenient hill, and then back into D to continue normally. Like in the Prius, Neutral means "don't control the motor" which means all braking is then done by the hydraulics. It is always good to have that level of understanding about these cars, as it's often hard to tell the difference by butt-feel, and that general mode of operation has become fairly industry-standard for hybrid and electric drivetrains. |
_H* 191010