I’m here to make a bold statement. Not the boldest I’ve ever made, but it’s up there. I’m here to sing the praises of the button shifter. It’s languished in obscurity for far too long. It’s high time that it became the de facto standard above all others.
“You’re mad!” they all shout. “Huge girthy shifters should sprout from the console!” insists the floor shifter brigade. “Bring back column shifts!” say the old heads in the back. Meanwhile, the manual enthusiasts have left the room. This is a discussion for automatic transmissions only, after all.
In any case, I think you’re all wrong. I think the button reigns supreme, and I’ll explain why.
Clean & Compact
Here’s the thing: Button shifters aren’t new. In fact, Chrysler was installing them all the time back in the 1950s for its Powerflite automatic transmissions. It’s commonly believed that government regulations enforced a move away from pushbuttons, but the reality is more complex. In any case, from the mid-1960s onwards, column shifts and floor shifters would become the norm.
I got my first taste of a button shifter much, much later—in 2021, in fact, when I climbed aboard a glorious Hyundai Staria. A modern marvel, its design wasn’t held back by tangled ties to the past. It was a new van for a new era, and it didn’t have some bulky, chunky shifter sticking out of the dash. It had four rectangular buttons which did all the work.
I immediately thought this was rad. Sure, the Staria didn’t have a front bench seat. There wasn’t a middle passenger who scored big in the legroom stakes. But it decluttered the cabin, and it made shifting easy. You’d hit “R” when you start your drive, pull out, hit “D,” and away you go.
There were no clumsy detent gates to slot an awkward shifter around. No pointless mechanical linkages for a transmission that was electronically controlled anyway. Just four simple buttons did the job. I certainly liked it better than the clunky automatic stick in the 2007 Yaris I’d been driving at the time.
Neither were there any “2” or “L” settings that I have never found any use for in my entire life. Yes, I’m aware that these are of more value to some people in snowy areas or something, but personally? I’ve driven one automatic car in my entire life that I’ve ever shifted below “D”. Besides, the Staria had paddles or something to do this if necessary anyway. Pointless in their own way, along with the Sport mode, but they were there.
I do understand that some people like the old ways. I can see the value in the chunky, physical feel of a classical T-bar auto, for example. But many automakers have gotten so far away from that anyway.
BMW is fitting weird little shifter nubbins in its center consoles. Meanwhile, Tesla abandoned shifters entirely, demanding you change drive settings by touchscreen! Neither of these rock, in my opinion.
I think the physical button shifter lands nicely in the middle. It’s clean, modern, and takes up a minimum of space. But it also delivers enough tactile feedback to give the user some confidence in its operation. That’s also key from a safety perspective. You don’t want to be mis-shifting in your driveway at home, lest you accidentally drive straight through your own garage door.
The truth is that there isn’t a whole lot of reason for traditional floor shifters to exist, as far as automatics are concerned. Virtually every auto on the market now is electronically shifted, to say nothing of EVs and cars with CVTs. Of course, this should be obvious anyway given that we had pushbutton shifters in the 1950s as well.
I have a secret extra reason for liking button shifters, too. I feel like more than most people, I find myself climbing over the center console to exit via the passenger door. Why, I did it just this week when my press car was too big for a multistory car parking space. I had to clamber over a big shifter in the center console, avoid impaling myself, and sneak out the passenger door. I don’t have to tell you twice—that’s much easier in a button-shifter car!
I know this viewpoint won’t be popular. People like the positive physical feedback of a “normal” automatic shifter. Personally, I don’t think that’s so important for something you do maybe two or three times on any given drive. I find the buttons are more than good enough, and they clean up the cabin nicely. That’s my design taste, but feel free to tell me why I’m wrong.
Image credits: Plymouth, Hyundai, Lewin Day, Chrysler, Ford
I mostly agree with this. I think the Accord is actually a bad example because it takes up the same footprint as the conventional shifter. Put buttons on the dash or just do a column shifter.
Automatic shifters mounted on the center console are dumb a waste of space.
In the past couple years I have owned a button shift Acura TLX, and a Grand Cherokee with a rotary knob.
Give me a classic shifter any day of the week. Much easier to operate without looking at it.
If I can’t put a vehicle in Neutral with the battery disconnected and without leaving the driver seat, the design is a failure. I will not further elaborate.
(Fuck you, BMW.)
Yeah given that auto shifters are all electronic now might as make it the most efficient design. I’d prefer a lever that physically tells my transmission what to do but most people couldn’t care less.
The Hyundai one is one of the best, too. The Honda I don’t like because there’s no reason for them to still be in a row—that’s just a waste of space. But the way the Hyundai buttons are clustered makes them super easy to hit with various fingers (especially thumb for ‘P’) and so three-point turns are a breeze. Besides, why should we have a giant lever in an automatic anyway? It’s not like you’re actually shifting gears.
As an owner of a pushbutton auto Torqueflite in a 1962 Valiant, I agree!
But, neutral drops suck when they’re push-button!
“multistory car parking space”
Jesus…. how tall are these vehicles you’re driving? Clearly taller than 15′ or so….
Both of my current cars are at least partly button shift. My ’21 Hyundai Kona EV is fully button shift and I i love the car, but the shifter is the one thing about it I don’t like.
My second car is the wife’s Volvo XC60 T8 PHEV. It has a little joystick thing that you physically rock forward or backward to shift as in an old school automatic, but it only goes one dentent in either direction. This would be okay, at least the detent provide a physical assurance that you actually moved it properly. Unfortunately, the Park function is a little button next to the shifter.
In both cars I have failed to properly engage the P button sufficiently, which lead to the car(s) rolling after I let off the brake. I hate that I have to look at the center console to know if the button press was registered or not. It has happened about a half soWn times in the last 12 months between both cars. Incredibly infrequently on the grand scale of things, but when the car moves after you think it’s in park, it really impacts your confidence with the car.
I have taken to turning both cars off while in gear. Simply stop where I want, then turn off the car while still on D. The car automatically puts it in whatever version of “Park” an EV and PHEV have. For what it’s worth, that on/off button (and little switch thing on the Volvo) have never given me greef.
For the Kona, seriously, I only dislike two things about the whole car, everything else about it is just so wonderfully out together and engineered, especially for an econobox. But the fact that the brakes don’t de-rust themselves as an EV is unfortunate. Twice a month I ride the brakes down a hill in Neutral to clean off the brake rust and keep the car from squeaking to a stop. That and the shifter are my only gripes.
I completely agree. One thing I don’t like about my C-Max is the needlessly big shifter that partially obstructs the HVAC controls:
https://img4.d2cmedia.ca/sl665d42a835075/1559/10640883/24/Ford-C_MAX-2017.jpg
It would have been better if Ford replaced that stupidly oversized shifter with some buttons and use the freed up space for a proper holder for my cell phone with a charge port or wireless charger.
The nice thing about a proper, non-centering stick is that, when it’s in position, there’s only one position it could possibly be in. There’s no mistaking it, checking for lights or double-tapping the button just in case it didn’t register. You slot it in, and it’s in. If you can’t go into that gear at that time, it’ll be physically blocked and if it’s already in that gear, you can’t go any MORE into gear. I think those are important features that we’re forsaking right now, and I think they’ll be back once we’re done flirting with self-centering, cheap buttons and the novelty of isolation.
With modern torque curves and electronic controls, I agree that L, 2 and other variants of D are unnecessary, just give us a drive mode dial or button array for sport, snow, gravel and/or hill descent control, but some form of positive feedback is imperative for PRND.
This can take any form, as long as it has positive feedback. A classic “mechanical” stick, interlocking rocker switches with power detents, or a big Gameboy D-pad with 4 positions, so long as it locks into whatever position you put it in, it’s good. I want to be able to reach down, press a button and know, purely from how it feels to press the button, that the car has received and accepted my command. No checking for lights, graphics or sounds, and no checking the user’s manual to decipher what different haptic rhythms mean.
To illustrate this, if my car is in park and I push the D button without sufficiently depressing the brake, the button should not budge. It should be jarringly, alarmingly stiff, frozen solid, so that I immediately feel the car’s refusal to shift. Likewise, if I’m already in park, and I push the P button, I should feel that it’s already in drive. Whether the switch is held down in the depressed position or an internal plunger is decoupled so that the switch is limp doesn’t matter, as long as I can feel it.
The only action that should be met with a switch clicking or moving at all is a successful shift into the indicated gear. A failed attempt or an attempt to shift into an already-engaged gear should be met with physical resistance, and one should be able to find out what gear they’re in by running a finger over the buttons, like an old-school cassette recorder/player. There are many lovely, creative ways to do this, and I think they should be required to try. The idea that shifting, failing to shift and double-shifting need to have 3 distinct feelings is quite simple and easy to universally apply to any style of interface while allowing for creative interpretation.
Buttons are fine, shifter would be fine too but put it on the column. Buttons on the dash would be better too, with electronic there is no need for still giving up so much room for a giant center console. Like trucks should go back to having a bench option in the front. And dial shifters… Just no.
I was skeptical of the push button shifter on my Ridgeline when I first got it. I got used to it within a few minutes and I agree – it is superior. I prefer a console shifter for the tactile enjoyment, but for the purposes of being practical, good packaging, and easy to use, the buttons are hard to beat.
Have the buttons in my N Line. Nope, not better than what could have been a good little shifter with the ability to shift from the console rather than just buttons on the steering wheel. Removing it from a dual clutch trans car is stupid.
There have been a number of times when I have thought I have pushed the button properly and did not, not something that happens when you move a lever into the correct position that you can do by feel, you almost always have to take your eyes off the road to shift when you use the push buttons.
Well, Lewin (AKA “Lewinsky”) is at it again.
He knew damn well what he was doing when he wrote this article. He knew that us console shifter devotee’s ire would be raised.
Yes, he is just Trying to push our buttons! 😉
At any rate, I will at least agree that a console mounted shift lever is a ridiculously stupid waste of space in an automatic. What other form the shifter takes instead of that – column, push button, rotary dial – I don’t really care, the important thing is to get it out of the console.
Though, I do really like column shifters from an intuitive standpoint, but, then, I’ve never owned a car with buttons and have only rented ones with the dials (which I didn’t have a problem with and actually sort of liked)
Yeah, no.
Are you agreeing or disagreeing?
Quoting the great Gary Gulman – lacking the intonation here:
Yeaaahhhh… NO!
Re-reading this and maybe still not making sense but I am firmly in the no-button camp
I still don’t know if you are agreeing or disagreeing.
Jesus. So no off-roading, no driving in hilly areas either? You are the least car enthusiast car site blogger I’ve seen (and I used to frequent Jalopnik).
The 4 speed slushbox in my 2003 Pathfinder gets driven almost like a manual. Need to engine brake going downhill? Shift. Need to stop hunting gears? Disable OD. Need a bit extra passing power? Shift it through 1, 2 and D, let it redline.
I have 2 manual and 2 automatic cars, all fitting different purposes. I’ve never stayed only in “D” with the autos, ever.
Oh, and I hate button shifters because you’ve got to take your eyes off the road to find them.
I couldn’t believe it either when I read that. No A/T is intuitive enough to forego all ability to control what gear its in. If I’m off-roading, I want my transmission locked in first or second – the last thing I need is for it to shift gears while I’m going through deep water. When I’m hauling/towing, I want the overdrive off.
Even if the author isn’t towing or off-roading or whatever, he really doesn’t want to shift just for fun?
I can understand it in modern 8+-speed autos where you can put the car in paddle-shift mode, because then it’s pointless to have an “L” position, but I still don’t think it’s worth eliminating everything, especially because if you’re going to have a sequential mode, you really should have a stick to push/pull to shift. I haven’t used 1 and 2 in my wife’s CR-V much, probably because it’s a 2.0L 4-speed so it’s programmed to rev itself out under load anyway, but I use the O/D switch to coast downhill all the time.
I just came back from a weekend trip on a mountainous area (6000ft ASL). Took my Pathy because I knew there was a big patch of rough gravel. Not only did the lower gears (and 4×4) helped me traverse the slippery and bumpy gravel bits, but descending 6000ft down to sea level I would have cooked my brakes and gone off a cliff if not for the 1 and 2 gears. The transmission in the R50 is as dumb as they come and if you build up speed downhill it will actually upshift, gaining more speed.
Up to this point I wasn’t really avoiding any of The Autopian writers in particular, but Lewin is building a strong case for himself.
I love manuals. My daily is a manual.
I have no interest in “L” and a huge console shifter in a Volkswagen Up.
“you are the least car enthusiast car site blogger I’ve seen” here we go with the car enthusiast gatekeeping :/
Oh sorry, I must’ve posted this in the wr…. nope, I’m still on The Autopian, a site for car enthusiasts.
It’s a long bow to draw because I said I didn’t like console shifters and I don’t shift autos into L on my way to the grocery store XD
It is not unreasonable to expect any car enthusiast to at least attempt more advanced driving techniques like engine braking. Admitting that you have never even tried means admitting a lack of automotive curiosity and enthusiasm rivaled only by Prius drivers.
Yes, a lack of enthusiasm is a reasonable metric by which to gatekeep car enthusiasm.
I am astonished by the amount of assumptions made by you and others on here about Lewin’s automotive enthusiasm based on … his lack of enthusiasm about forward gear selections on an automatic transmission other than D? What an interestingly niche facet of automobile operation to use to decide someone who *writes several articles a week for a car enthusiast website* isn’t an enthusiast.
Seriously, outside of a few use cases (towing, driving on steep inclines, off road use, snow/severe weather) what would using 2, L, or B even accomplish in an ICE only vehicle? And would these use cases, like say racing or something, be best enjoyed with a manual transmission….which Lewin has done?
Also, it’s funny that you have equated a lack of enthusiasm and curiosity about engine braking with the Toyota Prius since it is common knowledge to put the Prius (and honestly most hybrids and EVs) in B or L instead of D for the increased regenerative braking. You would know that if you had the curiosity to find that out, but you didn’t. That doesn’t make you any less of a car enthusiast, but it does tarnish your credibility regarding the judgement of another’s automotive enthusiasm and curiosity somewhat. Have a blessed day.
Incredibly rude!
I’ve been offroading quite a few times, and I never messed about with an auto shifting into 2 or L. I shifted my own damn gears in a manual and used low range.
A column shift, but like John Deere tractors, would be supreme. https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-knh0cnq2u8/images/stencil/original/products/6706/42211/AT376325__02632.1687876697.jpg?c=2
I bet I’ve put 20k on my wife’s CR-V over 4 years and the buttons still drive me bonkers. My biggest issue: I must divert my vision from outside the car or mirrors while maneuvering to look at the buttons to hit the correct one. With a traditional shifter (even modern ones with no physical linkage) – muscle memory is much easier to achieve.
I’m with Lewin, although now that I’m used to it the column-twist-shifter on my i3 is awesome.
My one caveat? Any button should be sufficiently tactile. Put a Cherry MX Grey at least under the switch and that’ll do.