[landcruiser123]

Column mounted shifters (manual or automatic) pre-dates any other type of shifter. Reason: To seat 3 in the spacious front bench in the old American cars. Example of an old Cadillac Eldorado:

Of course, improvements in safety eliminated these designs. Column mounted shifters are coming back as we love our super fancy infotainment systems and large coffee cups.

Also, column mounted shifters can never be mistaken for wiper/light controls as they are chunky and placed farther away from the driver (in case of the ATs. )

[GKR9900]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Current gen XUV500's unconventional manual mode button. In manual mode, driver had to use his thumb to push the small button on the right side of the shifter to shift up or down. It was an ergonomic disaster and ensured that nobody used the manual mode.

I gotta confess...this was an arrangement that I hated when I bought my W7 AT. But over a course of time, I pretty much got around it and now a days use it almost on a daily basis. And I must say I do enjoy resting my left arm over the armrest, lazily pinging this tiny button up and down for manual shifts. Although the involvement is missing, it felt very convenient for lazy folks like me

[imzahid]

Lincoln cars have these buttons as gear selectors and they feel absolutely weird to use as compared to a conventional lever.

[CountMe91]

My choice anyday would be the BMW monosticks (I do love the stick shift feeling) followed by Mercedes Stalk AT shifts which is incredibly easy to use and gives the retro feeling.

[Amsdoc]

This one is from the new Skoda Octavia. Not sure I like the fiddly little lever!

[Zorbix]

Originally Posted by imzahid

Lincoln cars have these buttons as gear selectors and they feel absolutely weird to use as compared to a conventional lever.

Is there a safety feature to this type of gear shift? What of the kids press fiddle with it whilst you are trying to park the car or are crawling in heavy traffic?

[hema4saran]

My Acura MDX has button shifter like the one in CRV launched in India. While it looks funky and modern, let me tell you the problem with these kind of shifters. There is no shift lock lever near the gear shifter. It will be available in normal automatics where we insert a flat head metal screw driver to shift the car to neutral so that you can push the car.

To put the car in neutral in my car, I need a special tool which is not easily available in market. Also my engine bay is fully covered in plastic cover. It is a tedious process to reach to the manual lever. Here is the video link on how to put the car in neutral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdVjgJ1YJik

My car had a dead battery once and thankfully it was parked outside my garage. So it was easy for me to hook jump starter cable and start the car.

I believe most of the modern cars will have the same issues with these kind of electronic shifters.

On the positive side, advantages of this shifter in MDX is if I open the car in Drive mode, the car will automatically shifted to Park and avoid accidental rolling.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by Zorbix

Is there a safety feature to this type of gear shift? What of the kids press fiddle with it whilst you are trying to park the car or are crawling in heavy traffic?

There certainly is a safety feature - it is called "kids belong in the back seat at all times, never the front".

Cheers