I remember driving cars with three speed automatic and can't remember anyone complaining, " I wish if I had more gears!" I am baffled as to the need for 9 and even ten gears. What's next - 15 or 20 gears? I am not even sure why are we calling one of the gears and overdrive. There is a button on the gear shifter of my 2017 BE that I used to press to help brake the vehicle (if I anticipate stopping almost in an emergency situation down a hill or approaching a surprise stop sign or red light) until I learned from the ROC forum that this is bad for the transmission. Then, if I needed to downshift even further, I had to pull the shifter from D in the opposite direction of Neutral, which made the transmission sound as if this lower gear was now far too low. I never could figure or hear 4, 5, or six different gears automatically changing, and there is no indication of a number showing any gear selection; L seems ambiguous: but it would be nice to have that "in between gear" when I am down shifting. It would also be nice to have a higher gear than D, if I were driving on level ground over 80 mph or downhill but I understand that engines can be destroyed easier when a vehicle is placed in a gear that doesn't have adequate power rather than when placed in a gear that has too much power. So here is my dilemma: I love my 2017 BE but would like another gear or maybe two more, but I would not want to trade it in for a newer Ridgeline that has an unnecessary amount of gears that demands the vehicle to keep hunting and pecking ineffectively for a suitable gear, because there are mechanically and technologically just too many to chose from. If there is an obvious consensus that the newer Ridgeline has missed some kind of a sweet spot in the way the throttle lags during acceleration or will not downshift in a timely manner, then it may just require a small manufacturer's adjustment during a recall rather than to continue to obfuscate this discrepancy.