Let’s only focus on the reverse gear position, I believe there are as follow:
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all the way to the right and down.
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all the way to the right and up.
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all the way to the left and up.
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knob pull then shift to left and up.
For me, if I drive an old 5 speed then 1).
For modern cars with 6 speed, I prefer 4). It makes me feel confident that I am definitely in reverse.
A 6 speed with 3) imo is just terrible. I know many BMWs have this pattern. The idea is to really push to the left so you engage reverse and not 1st. Tried it on a friend’s car and I was quite nervous: what happen if I yank too hard and damage the shifter?
My last 6 speed was a combo of 1 and 4 sorta. All the way right and down position, but only accessible by pulling the collar on the shifter up. Maybe that’s the same as the knob pull you’re mentioning though.
I liked it though. Kept 1-6 in places that made sense, and never had an “oh fuck” moment going from 5-6 since reverse required the collar pull. It was a 2006 Tiburon Tuscani trim (US if that matters). RIP good buddy.
I believe my Mazda speed3 was like this too.
Speed3 is push down and all the way left then forward. Probably the most annoying option
I might have confused it with the rx7 I had cause I swear one of my cars had the collar.