Many "modern" cars did even in recent years, particularly from Subaru and Toyota/Lexus. Not sure, though, about all of the 2020s....I haven't actually sat down and counted them. A number of them, though, like I mentioned to Jill, have (properly, IMO) switched to a regular fore-aft motion.

 

Yes, that's how most of today's shifters operate. But having the "traditional lever" still takes up quite a bit of real estate, which is at a premium given the amount of other controls, features and settings that customers seem to care more about.

 

Quote:

Owner Satisfaction With Gear Selector

Didn't need to see the list to know Acura was on the bottom. Their selector layout is asinine

 

And if you look at it, the buttons don't "save" any space on the console. IIRC, on the TLX, the 4-cylinder model gets a traditional shifter, but the V6 gets the buttons which just replace the PRNDL track of the shifter. (I think this is the same with Honda models--different engine choices get different shifters) Sure, there's no protrusion out of the console, but there's also no added storage space.

 

With new technology, it will soon be possible to have manual cars that are also automatic.

You have an automatic linear system, but when you press a button, the gear shifter moves away, and the whole shifter plate rotates and a 6 speed manual is now your shifing device.

 

ha, honestly didn't realize lexus was still using the zig zag on all those models!

so mmarshall, are all these lexus models not using a 'proper' shifter in your opinion?

 

the lc has yet another design (that i think is awesome)...

 

This reminds me of BMW's joystick. Push fwd/back for R/D; button for park; to the side for manual if you aren't using paddles. Very intuitive; took me a day and a half to get used to.

 

^ very similar to the prius shifter, just more luxurious and leather-bound.

i do prefer gated shifters to just straight shifters. i tend to rest my hand on the shifter and sometimes with braking g-forces i've pushed the shifter into neutral a few times, or even down a gear but that's less of an occurrence.

 

I prefer traditional stick/zig zag shifters too. I don't understand the push button shifters or needing to change up shifters, it is a concept that works very well and is very familiar, nobody was asking for them to be replaced by buttons and will likely later be replaced with lame touchscreens the way things are going. I loved the zig zag shifter in my GS430, looked nice, very intuitive, easy to know what gear you were in, I think I liked it better then my GS350 which is just straight pull back shifter with a leather boot but it is still nice. I always thought the concept of push buttons for gear shifts was interesting but the implementation is not very good in pretty much all cases, my dads TLX is kind of annoying and I don't see what it improves, my dad doesn't seem to mind it though.

I feel the same way about touchscreens, they improve nothing, they just make things worse, make interiors look worse, take your eye/attention off the road too much/needlessly. It is another thing that consumers tend to hate but automakers do mainly because it saves them money putting all the functions in a annoying touch screen instead of doing buttons for operations.

 

Don't you have a current gen GS350? That shifter is not one to pull straight back, you have to push it first to the right (to exit Park), then pull back and "zig-zag" to Drive.

 

except it's not just fwd/back there i don't think, maybe i'm wrong, but it looks like from the graphic you have to go LEFT/UP to go R and LEFT/DOWN to do D and straight DOWN to go to a manual mode ?

the 'nobody was asking' argument doesn't work because 'nobody was asking for' anti-lock brakes, HID then LED headlights (vastly superior), adaptive headlights (look around corners), power trunk/hatch, soft close doors, adaptive cruise control (wonderful on busy highways), voice commands, gps, apple carplay and android auto, power window shades, air bags, and on and on and on.
it's call innovation. you may not like it, and obviously if the majority doesn't like an innovation it tends to fade away. but you've made it clear many times you pretty much don't like ANY automotive innovations form the past decade or more.

if it was hated that bad, it would affect car sales, right? doesn't seem to be. in fact the opposite. good luck selling a car without a decent screen today, and while for a period some screens were being offered without touch, they seem to be adding touch back, in addition to controllers and voice. i think having options is great. screen in my car isn't touch, but i don't mind because i'm used to the controller dial. the recent refresh of my car kept the dial but added touch to the screen.

 

I had an IS300 with the zig-zags. It was one of the few things I disliked on that car....but I also liked some other things about the shifter, especially the polished real-chrome-ball (no cheap materials there).

 

LOL. Nothing on a Prius is conventional.

 

Yeah this is one variant of the "monostable" type, which I actually really like.. Audi's is similar, except it's flat instead of upright, and the P button is on the shifter itself instead of on the console next to it. One cool Easter egg is that if you have the shfiter in manual mode and push the P button (or turn off the car and open the door), the shifter moves back to its original position on its own.