Replacing your shift knob with buttons

Sweet!

 

But the funky knob is one of my favorite things!

 

It'd be better than the knob.

 

Only one problem. You have to look at the buttons to make the selection that you want.

It would be much better, if each function would have a different tactile feel to the touch.

 

I seem to remember push-button transmissions from back in the late 1950s and early 1960s:



They were more of a novelty feature promoted by some of Detroit's greatest marketers. They quickly passed into oblivion. Maybe their time has come again... or maybe not.

 

Yeah, the Chrysler PowerFlite system. My graddad's Plymouth had that and I thought at the time it was the coolest thing ever. Of course, I was like 8 years old at the time.

There are cars with pushbutton shift these days. Including the Prius if you're shifting to Park.

 

Cool! No more just reaching while keeping your eyes on the road. Now there's ANOTHER reason to look away. There's a reason push button shifting didn't catch on last time it was introduced.

 

Consumer Reports seems to continually ding all Prius models about the awkwardness of the shifter. Apparently, their owners never owned a Prius.

Once you get used to it, the Prius shifter becomes intuitive. You just shift the car into the right position without looking at the shifter or even thinking about it.

With pushbutton shifters, it's too easy to select the wrong shifter position.

The current down low position is far from ideal for a pushbutton shifter. High and close to the top of the dashboard would be a better place, like the shifters on the Gen2 and Prius v.

 

My Clarity has push buttons. After nearly a year of ownership, I would gladly trade them for a "regular" shifter like the Prius. Be careful what you wish for.

 

My only complaint with the current the shifter is that the pattern seems bass-akcward, and a more logical arrangement would place Drive (I wanna move forward) up, and Reverse (I wanna go back that-a-way) in the lower position. More than once I've started to move it to the incorrect selection. Hey, I'm a geezer (translation: slow learner, even though this is our second Prime... Doh!)

 

It has to do with government regulatory agencies. It's a throwback to the convention of mechanical shift levers.

My new Ryobi battery powered riding lawnmower is not encumbered by such regulation. It has a rocker switch that goes forward for drive and backwards for reverse.

 

The shift positions are the same way on the 2020 Corvette.

 

My parents had a 1964 Plymouth Fury. Rootbeer color inside and out. Push button transmission! It was the coolest thing on the block...........except for my neighbor and his rocket blue GTO convertible. I still remember him driving it around the neighborhood when he bought it. Had the whole family in it........ahhh yes, the automobile and the memories!

 

Then every automatic transmission car must be backward to you. They all have reverse to the front of neutral and drive to the rear of neutral.
car shift lever pictures at DuckDuckGo

 

Here's another weird one.

 

Shifter requirements are mandated in US Code of Federal Regulations under 49CFR571;

Federal Register :: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Transmission Shift Position Sequence, Starter Interlock, and Transmission Braking Effect

The record includes extensive discussion in the Prius shifter and start-stop system.

 

All of my cars have had floor mounted (or on the column in older days) shift which, granted, were not confusing. It's the Prius' panel mount position that sometimes discombobulates me. Heck, even my snow blower and leaf blower shifters are more intuitive (pictured for those fortunate to live in a warm enough area as to not know what a one looks like ) :



Just sayin'... YMMV

 

The government involvement is probably the specific reason they are all bass ackwards. Push forward to go backwards and pull back to go forward. But, we're so used to it now that making it logical would really discombobulate us.

 

Agreed. It also mirrors many manuals that I have driven in the past, though it seems more are going over and up nowadays. Every now and then I will try to drive through my garage wall. Scares my wife half to death!