Yeah, looks good.....simple, no-nonsense, and effective. The kind we used to take for granted.

 

A retro 80s style gear shift is also a "gimmick". I'd rather a BMW/GM style joystick shifter than that bulky thing.

 

Looks out of place there too.

 

Each to his own. I respect your view if you respect mine. I like simple, easy-to-use controls, with a tactile-feel.

 

right and button or rotary dial shifters are also trivially easy to use and have a tactile feel. just different, and obviously takes up way less space.

 

I agree. Can't get much easier than a button. In modern interiors, these big gigantic levers look completely out of place in my opinion. Most of the time, they are only replacing the park position with a button (this is how Kia/Genesis/Hyundai is doing it, obviously a few have rotary ***** or a full set of 4 buttons) and leaving everything else the same, just in a smaller space. But different strokes I guess. End is near for this as are a lot of other things in the auto industry. As more battery powered cars come online, these controls will move to more buttons and possibly screens.

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I hate it in the Stinger, and hate it here. They have much better ones. Even the Sportage one looks sportier and more modern in my opinion.



Soul and Telluride too

 

exactly.

mmarshall, do you prefer keys to start the car vs. the push button start?

 

Difficult to answer in just one sentence. No question that, most of the time, buttons are more convenient, and prevent keys from getting stuck in the ignition lock-cylinder or hard to insert/withdraw from lack of lubrication/silicone spray. But buttons also have what IMO are several annoyances. They are more difficult to switch back and forth quickly from ignition on/off to the accessory-position...you sometimes keep pushing them and don't get the small green or yellow light-indicator you want for the proper mode. They (and their sensors) can, if poorly-made from some of the cheap materials used in modern interiors, wear with time and become harder to push and less-responsive. if you are unfamiliar with the vehicle, they are usually not as quickly spotted as a conventional ignition switch on the column. The engine doesn't always shut off with the first push....with very quiet-running engines (like my Lacrosse), it is not difficult, after you have pressed the button to shut the engine off, to walk off with the engine still running...although in some cases a horn-blast will sound if you do that. I've learned to verify engine-off with the tach. And GM, in particular, on some of its models, tends to put the button right where the steering-wheel pad or rim obscures them, no matter how you adjust the wheel.

Keys prevent a number of those problems, and can be easier to tell ignition from accessory-mode at a glance, but can also wear over time, become difficult to insert or pull out if not lubed, and, on the newer ones with built-in transponders/sensors, can be difficult or expensive to replace if lost or stolen.

However, buttons are obviously the wave of the future, and, to a large extent, I've learned to live with them.

Hey....at least today, it's one or the other. Many decades ago, before 1949, you had to insert a key AND press a button to start the engine...the 1949 Chrysler changed all of that to just a key. And the small, flimsy cheaply-made GM dual ignition/door keys of the 60s and 70s were a PITA....you had to use one key (oval one) to lock/unlock the doors and another one (square one) to start the car.

 

You've just described the joystick style shifter in my BMW.

 

GT1 with the 2.5 turbo will start at $31K, can option it up to be fully loaded at $36K:

https://www.carsdirect.com/automotiv...re-than-optima

That's cheaper than I expected, but it likely won't come with the highest-end features of the Sonata like the full LCD display.

 

Well, if you find yours easy to use, then fine. I've never found any BMW joy-sick intuitive or user-friendly. The one from GM also took me weeks to get used to.....even as a Buick owner. Even today, some three years later, the D/M is set up so that sometimes I find myself in manual-mode starting out from rest, with the transmission stuck in first gear, when I wanted D. It's one of two features on the car I'd I would redesign if given a chance...the other having to use the video-screen for all A/C and vent-mode adjustments.

Consumer Reports and a number of reviewers, BTW, have also criticized many of the joy-sticks, so my opinion certainly is not alone.

 

Press unlock and pull down for drive, or push up for reverse. It could not be any easier

 

And if you're really lazy or forgetful (I can only speak for my Stinger on this) you can leave the car in Drive, Neutral, or Reverse, turn the car off and it will automatically go into Park.

 

That right. Just two easy steps. It might take just a bit of getting used to but it's pretty intuitive.