My mom is out of town but she left her Hyundai Matrix CRDi in my garage and I am planning to return it to her house so that I can free up my garage.

But the problem is that it has this 'unconventional' 5-speed stick shift wherein the Reverse gear is on the top:

R-1-3-5 (top)
-N- (mid)
2-4 (bottom)

I could make it run forward but I could not seem to engage it to Reverse gear as I would always end up engaging first gear.

Should I do something first before I can shift to Reverse? Can anyone here tell me how to do it.

Thank you.

P.S. I am used to driving cars with conventional 5-speed stick shift: 1-3-5 (top) N(mid) 2-4-R (bottom). I tried asking my neighbors but they only drive automatic cars.

 

Push down on the stick as you shift it into 1st/reverse. IE Try to push the shifter right into the transmission. It's like a shift and a button press in one.

Personally I like that style much better they are very fast to shift from 1st/reverse when you get the hang of it and that can be nice when rocking the car back/forth out of some snow.

 

haha it took me like 2 days just to figure out that in order to engage Reverse, i have to pull something underneath the stick shift handle. silly me.

Bitmugger, an acquaintance of mine earlier suggested pushing the stick shift as well, just like in volkswagen and audi cars, but it didn't work. Thanx anyway.