Here are two examples where professional drivers have said the same thing about the shifter being too low. And, as I looked at the pics in the brochure, I asked myself this question right away.

From The Car Connection-

"One of our few serious complaints with the Pilot concerns not the transmission itself, but the odd placement of the shift lever. To provide more useful space with the center console, it’s column-mounted. That’d be fine, but the lever is positioned unexpectedly low, where it’s awkward to operate. We found ourselves repeatedly missing the intended gear and, when operating in 1st or 2nd, bumping the lever with our right knee."

From Car and Driver-

If there's any complaint to make—aside from a column shifter that makes gear selection unacceptably tricky..."

That first review is talking about using the low gears. Remember, they were testing the vehicle on an off-road testing track. Most folks will not be using those selections during normal driving.

Also, any reviewer worth his/her salt knows that they have to complain about something. If they don't, the readers will not trust them. When faced with a vehicle that has very few obvious flaws, they tend to blow the little things out of proportion.

Is the shifter oddly placed? A little bit. But I've sat in one and didn't think it was a big deal. Certainly nothing that I'm going to lose sleep over.

The position isn't a big departure from the 1st generation CR-V or Ody. However, I have to agree with C&D that it is very easy to miss the intended gear.

I attribute this to the following reasons (IMHO):

1. The shifter is silky smooth (Honda tradition) - The combination of the long shifter and smooth mechanism which makes it hard to pin point exactly when to stop putting in the effort to move the shifter.

2. Long shifter column lever. The length allows for a simple pull forward and push downwards which causes one to miss the intended gear easily.

Some have compained about missing the gear in the V as well but with practice, one won't miss the gear as much.

Bing

I am sure that one mistake that the engineers did not want to repeat was that on the 99-00 Ody where the shifter when in the drive position was in the way of the radio controls, a major complaint and corrected in 01.

"It's lunchtime at the Honda Pilot national press introduction. At a table is a selection of automotive journalists, Honda public relations managers and me. One of the journalists — between mouthfuls of free steak — is loudly telling the Honda people that the Pilot is "going to get hammered" in reviews because of its transmission shifter.

For reasons that I can discern only as an attempt to justify his own existence, said journalist is making the shifter out to be the worst thing since outboard fuel tanks, or possibly Felicity's short hair cut. The Honda PR mavens nod politely. I'm embarrassed to be grouped in the same profession. Dear reader: If the worst thing an egotistical journalist can say about the Honda Pilot is that it has a balky shifter, you know we've got a pretty good vehicle here."

Here's the full article.