Question for those with a 2007 automatic

[Astroman]

Ok, I'm puzzled, so I hope other '07 auto owners can help me out here.

I've been driving my '07 now for over 4 years and have been pretty happy. About a year and a half ago I had mine in for the side airbag foam recall, and they gave me a pretty much base model '08 as a loner for the day. I noticed that up by the fuel gauge and odometer it had a indicator for the gears, ie P, R, D, 3, 2, L. I thought "wow that's neat, must be a feature they added". And I didn't really give it much thought after that.

A couple weeks ago I was looking for something in the car and was using a flashlight when I remembered the '08 and shined my light on my gauge and sure enough I could see where the LCD had the markings for the gear indicator feature. Puzzled now I'm on here, trying to figure out if my yaris was defective new (I bought it with 27 miles on it), or if this was a feature that doesn't work for the '07. But if it isn't, why does the LCD have the marks? It's kinda hard to explain but you know with LCD clocks you can see where it could light up and its not (like it looks like 8) is what I can see.

If this wasn't a feature for '07 then can this be made to work? Why would they put this feature in, but not activate it until the next model year?

I'm well out of my warranty now. If this is a manufacturing defect what can I do?