Push, pull, left, right: no standard way to shift an automatic. Should there be?

Over the past decade manually shiftable automatics (and more recently, automated manuals) have become increasingly common. And yet there’s no standard way to operate the things. With BMW and Mazda pushing the lever forward downshifts, and pulling it backward upshifts. With other makes (and I believe even older BMWs), it’s the opposite. With paddles on the steering wheel, somtimes you… More →