NHTSA Complaint #11438405 — 2021 HONDA PILOT

This vehicle has a pushbutton transmission "gear selector". It is IMPOSSIBLE per the owner's manual, and further confirmed by the dealership, to PLACE THIS VEHICLE IN NEUTRAL without the engine running. This is an unacceptable safety hazard. If the vehicle stops running in busy traffic or in an intersection, or otherwise in a zone such that imminent danger of collision is necessarily introduced, it is impossible to push the vehicle out of danger, off to the side of the road. Further it cannot be towed without necessary imparting damage to the drive train. Honda requires the owner to BUY A SPECIAL TOOL, Lock Release 07AAA-TZ3A100 which requires removal of underhood components to place the transmission in neutral, and it (apparently) cannot be maintained there without an extra person available to hold the tool against spring return pressure. This whole affair is simply UNBELIEVABLE. As I write this, there is NO INCIDENT, as the vehicle is relatively new to us. But I'm 61 years old, and have had to place inoperative cars in neutral to get them out of harms way, at least a dozen times in my life. Note that this shortcoming manifests itself as simply as whenever the vehicle runs out of gas. This cannot be allowed to happen. Are there no adults left in the building designing these cars?