I noticed that when I engage Reverse with the driver’s side door open, the car reverts instantly back to Park.
Is there a way to override this. Many times when I am in my driveway I need to back up a couple of feet and see at the same time a small curb. Having the door open open a bit helps. I don’t like doing this by lowering the mirror.
In my previous non hybrid MDX I was able to do it.

 

Do it with the seatbelt buckled

 

Its a safety feature to prevent you from ripping a door off. Yea it happens. My MIL was proof of that.

 

I think it does the same thing if you put it in drive to move forward with the door open and seatbelt off. Pain in the bottom when I just want to move the car in/out the garage after a quick wash.

 

Precisely!

 

After more than 2 years of running vehicles with the push-button shifting, I'm still stumbling across scenarios where it tries to protect you from yourself. The door open thing can get annoying (especially in the wife's Sport Hybrid when the ICE isn't running an you don't know what the heck you did :-) ). But another is if you shut the car off while still in gear, it puts it into Park automatically. This gets to the whole car-wash mode and how to keep it in (say) neural with the engine off. I'm sure there are other things that are programmed in with this shifter - I just haven't found all of them yet...

 

I've haven't attempted taking the MDX to the car wash because of the car wash transmission mode thing. Worried it might get stuck in the autowash stall or the attendant will screw something up. Starting to get a little cold outside to hand wash at home.

 

I've been able to move my 16 by first going to park, opening the door (this part is not necessary but i do this because i need to see the back by sticking my head of out the doorway), shifting to reverse, and then crawling it slowly (like under 5 mph). I can also do this in drive to go forward as well. But yeah if you just open the door while in D or R already then it will shift you to P.

 

I really really don’t like the button shifter. Several times while backing out of a parking spot I pressed the wrong button...
I also miss the traditional console gear shifter because I used to rest my right hand over there.

 

I take my car to the car wash about once a week. I simply leave it in Neutral without bothering with the car wash position.
I never had a problem with it. Most of the times the engine shuts off and goes through the tunnel like that.

 

^ Ditto!