I am curious about this. I absolutely love column shifters in trucks, and the regular console shifter for other cars. (Column shifter just wouldn't go in a Lexus truck, but in a Chevy it's as American as apple pie)

How dinky and cheap do new ones feel? I get that they free up space but is it worth it to you?

My LX shifter takes up lots of space and there is mediocre storage space in console area, ALWAYS things are stored in the cupholder area. That said, I wouldn't trade more space for anything else shifter wise. I tend to be sort of hard on things and "slam" them and feel like maybe one of these new shifters might not last me too long.

My aunt has a new Enclave with the newer shifter, I'm sure I'd get used to it over time but no.... The old school one in our older one in the family feels great (GM always got this right for most part) and I wouldn't want to have to fiddle with some joystick thing.

 

I haven't really ever been a fan of column shifters, though I know many do like them.

All three of my cars have fairly traditional selectors. My father in law has the rotary selector in his Durango. I'm sure I'd get used to it, but with the little I've used it (and in rental Pacificas), I really don't like it.

What I really miss is a true manual. I have been seriously tempted to pick up a GR86/BRZ just so I can have a manual again.

 

My Pacifica has a rotary dial shifter on the dash that I initially did not like at all. However, like many things, once I got to use to it, it's been fine.

 

I like the feeling of a high end range selector that I have to move into D etc but it takes up space that is not really needed for it with modern trans and how fast they are. My A8 has a stupid electronic lever thing that just a waste of space and is harder to get into the range I want vs a gated lever, I would rather push a button for drive range, reverse range, and park and have manual gear control on paddles. Column shifters are great since they don't get in the way of other items and fulfill the task of selecting ranges and can be equipped with buttons for manual control if paddles are not wanted/cost effective.

The selectors in my LSs feel great, the Sequoia is nice but nothing that special and I wouldn't mind it just being a button or column type. The RX and Jeep have levers with lock buttons that move in a line, nothing to comment on other than they would be a waste of space if they didn't have cable type control. The Saturn is a manual with bad gate feel.....it doesn't feel as crisp as moving one of the LSs into a different range but it IS a shifter vs gear range selector. New cars that are not manual should just have buttons, the FCA/Stelantis rotary dial is probably the best shifter since it's the size of only one button and can service all ranges. Great implementation IMO

 

My BMW has a joystick-style shifter. I love it, and I do not miss a traditional-style shifter one bit. But there are lots of different styles and iterations, so my feeling may vary depending on my next car.

 

no. ...........

 

I like the BMW shifter as well but i will NOT buy any car with the buttons or rotary **** shifter.

 

Rotary you get used to but more than one person I know said it took them a while to not instinctively confuse it with a volume ****, in Ram trucks at least.

 

Yes, I miss my old school shifter, and I'm hoping to have it back in my next car:

 

I'd be more partial to a rotary shifter with a button for PARK, rather than rotating to PARK.

 

I'm probably unusual among CL members in that I learned to drive on both a three-speed Chrysler Torqueflite automatic transmission with push-buttons and a Three-on-the Tree column-shift three-pedal manual......both on Plymouth Valiants, a 1963 and 1968. (I'll do write-ups on those cars one of these days). I definitely would not want the push-buttons back....I never liked them, and Chrysler did away with them for 1965. I basically liked the concept of the Three-on-the Tree, and, as a teen-ager, drove MANY miles with it, all over the Mid-Atlantic and across the mountains to Ohio. But the Chrysler-designed unit was not well-done by the standards of the day, had an non-synchro first gear which meant gear-crunching unless you came to almost a complete stop before going into first, and a weak synchro on the 2-3 shift which meant slow movement of the lever to avoid another crunch, and loose/sloppy-feeling gear-linkage. A friend of mine had a 1970 AMC Hornet with the same Three-on-the Tree design that was much-better-done....solid-feeling linkage, all synchro, and no crunching.

So, no, I wouldn't want either of those specific two back I learned to drive on, but I wouldn't mind having some of the other shifters back then.....particularly the T-Handle Hurst 4-speeds on some of the muscle-cars.

 

i do like familiarity but there is something exciting and scary about figuring out how to reverse a ferrari using only the paddles...never done it so i wouldn't know!

 

I just feel like a newer shifter would be broken within 2 months if I were the vehicle’s owner. When you’re in a hurry making 3 point turns (or whatever), the gearshift gets slammed hard, at least mine. And I love the way it feels, like it’s cut out for hard work.

 

I despise column shifters for the most part but I’m sure I would get used to them if I had a MB or Model 3. I’m also not fond of the rotary shifters either but the worst is probably my Tesla with the swiping of the screen although the good thing is the car starts to learn your patterns and in certain instances you just tap the brake pedal and it puts it in forward or reverse automatically.

I really like the BMW shifter implementation a lot but my favorite was my LS600hL gated shifter, I liked everything about it.

 

Toyota/Lexus gated shifters are the best.