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
Yeahhh, no. The buttons on two different Hondas only seemed to work sometimes. Plus, if you hit them too quickly or before the vehicle has been stopped for a second or two, it will not register the button click. It makes 3 point turns and maneuvering in tight spaces a slow process made slower. What is worse is that if the button push isn’t registered and you hit the gas to move, you end up moving in the wrong direction.
I also got tired of the “Shift into Park” errors.
Even if the modern shifter isn’t mechanically connected to the transmission, at least being able to put the shifter in the position you want ‘once’ is better than hitting the button and not knowing whether it even registered.
You’re wrong.
Personally I drive an older nova with a shifter on the floor and a 2011 gmc pickup with a column shifter and I like the control I have either going down a drag strip or towing with the truck you can keep your push button shifters and your keyless starters
I probably wouldn’t mind owning one, and getting used to it as the one car I drove. But as someone working at a car dealer, I’m annoyed that every car I get into, I have to wonder how to shift, and have to think about every time when I go to back into a spot. Palisade? Buttons like that. Santa Fe? Twisty column shift. Tucson? Depends on the trim my friend! G80 (when we were a Genesis dealer)? Twisty knob. GV60? Differently feeling twisty knob!
That said, I really like the Volt’s console shifter. PRNDL, with L engaging half-power regen when I lift from the accelerator. (Full-power regen is a flappy paddle on one side of the steering wheel.) I’m shifting between D and L all the time, based on whether I’m doing a lot of coasting or if I’m in stop-and-go or short city blocks with a lot of turns.
I have always preferred the gear selectors with 7-shaped shift pattern on the centre console in Mercedes-Benz vehicles from the late 20th century.
Two cars weirdest gear selectors that I have driven would be Citroën DS with semi-automatic gearbox and Tatra T-603 with “reversed” shift pattern with 1st and 2nd closer to the dashboard and 3rd and 4th closer to the driver.
I love buttons when they are done right and put on the dash. The set ups like the Honda pictured are crap. It takes up as much room on the center console as the traditional shifter it replaces. So no gain in console space at all. Plus it introduces another problem. My MIL thinks that when she is riding with my wife it is a good time to dig through her purse and she proceeds to pile the crap she pulls out on the console. Thankfully our car that she does it in has a dial so slightly less likely for her to change the gear, but a pain when my wife actually wants to use the shifter.
I’ve used the buttons on the current Tahoe’s and I hated them. It might have more to do with where they were located than their actual feedback though. My Ram’s dial is the perfect option imo. I really thought I would hate the dial shifter but I think it’s great. Still has some of that feedback that an old shifter has and is super easy to use that is out of the way. Plus, my center console has way more room in it.
You’re the first person I’ve ever seen say something nice about the dial shifter.
I’ve actually really liked the dial shifter in our 2020 Ram 1500. But, even before I got my ’23 300C (dial shifter), I was already planning to swap it out for the shifter from the Charger. But, I’ve adapted quite nicely to the dial shifter in the 300 as well. The only “challenge” is when I switch from one vehicle to the other, I’m constantly reaching in the wrong spot for the shifter. It’s on the dash in the Ram and on the center console in the 300.
Add another vote for the dial shifter. Our Pacifica has one. It is tactile, has the expected PRND pattern and reasonably decent indicators of its current position, both on the knob, and on the dash .
The only thing you give up over a traditional center console shifter, is knowing what position it is just by touch, with the benefit of taking up less room.
Yeah, I like the dial as well.
I’m waiting for the worlds first push-button manual transmission.
Be careful what you wait/wish for…Shit happens.
Your wait ended about 90 years ago.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/a-brief-history-of-missing-clutch-pedals-and-almost-automatics/
Maybe if button placement was standardized where a driver wouldn’t need to glance down at the buttons. Like some have said operating a shift lever becomes muscle memory, it would be a pain to look down to make sure you’re getting the right button. Having lived in NYC most of my life and needing to parallel park pretty much everywhere many times in tight spaces, I can imagine this being annoying as hell.
Rotary shifters ala Ford or simple light stalk mounted ones ala merc /earlier Tesla are both superior to buttons. They allow muscle memory for form like a stick does, but take up way less space than either a stick ***or*** buttons.
The rotary shifter is a wheel without stops at either side, though (having just driven one yesterday) so it can just spin forever and ever and ever, which is bad for muscle memory.
It depends on the year of the Ford, the most current ones are just an encoder with no stops, while earlier models did have stops, and a motor that will spin the dial to park if you shut the vehicle off with it in gear. I had a rental Expedition years ago with the earlier set up. I purposely rarely used the knob when turning off the car just to watch the dial spin itself.
We do have one of the encoder w/o stops style and for shifting from P or R to D I just give it a big old flick of the wrist, well overshooting the 2 or 3 steps, ditto for putting it in park. So yeah my muscle memory is mostly just give it a big old spin.
I used it for years, you muscle memory the number of clicks. It’s amazing
Muscle memory forms just fine with push buttons. I’ve been reaching over to change the radio station w/o looking to hit the desired button for decades and it didn’t take but a few drives for muscle memory to form when I got my car with a button shifter.
Not just snow is needing to keep you automatic in a lower gear but also mountains. Last time I was at the top of Pike’s Peak there were signs everywhere to drive back down in low range. I asked a worker about the need for all the signage and they said many people have no idea how to keep their car in a low gear. There was even a stand with a worker with a laser thermometer measuring break temps about half way down.
Snow/mud/gravel/wet grass, going down (or up) hills, messing around in the twisties, towing, you name it – there are plenty of reasons for using lower gears. I find it bizarre that the writer hasn’t experienced any of these.
Two things.
1.) If the shifting lever doesn’t provide leverage to actually shift gears then there is no need for it to be a lever.
2.) If there is no need for a shifting lever between the driver and passenger seats then there shouldn’t be a permanent center console there. Have a pass through. When I was a kid my mom’s old Mazda B2000 pickup had space between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat, a soft pillow was put there that allowed our dog Indigo to lay down betweeen the seats all comfy and cozy. I almost never use a center console, and I’d much rather have an empty space between the seats.
Hang on hang on hang. No center console? Where do you keep your water bottle? Your half empty can of Diet Coke? Your Starbucks cup with the dregs of a 4-day-old latte? And no storage? Where do you keep your chapstick? Your 17 other chapsticks? Mascara? Tissues? Baby wipes? Gum? Emergency $20? Extra sunglasses? Pen? Backup pen because primary pen is always out of ink? Reusable grocery bag that you usually forget to take into the store so why are you even carrying it around??!!
That dog story was really sweet though. 🙂
I bet Indigo was a very good boy or girl.
She was a sweet girl. Before her my dad kept his dogs in dog houses (except during the winter but that was before my time), once Indigo was in his life she was allowed to sleep at the foot of the bed. She also got allowed to ride on the seats in the car vs in the back of the car (cargo area of SUVs), and the front passenger seat became her designated seat after a short while. She loved cheeseburgers, and had what we called a “food fetish” as in she wanted to try whatever you were eating, even if she didn’t end up liking it.
Was a rescue that was the runt of a litter of Aussie Shepards that was the only short hair of the litter, she nearly lived to the ripe old age of 18, but had to be put down due to heart failure, but luckily we were able to have it done in our yard with a mobile vet. I highly recommend anyone who has to do that, to do so with a mobile vet, most pets hate the vet, and you don’t want their last moments to be somewhere they hate.
Wait till you have to do a three-point (or more) turn. Button shifters become very annoying then.
I haven’t done a standard three point turn in years. The easiest way to turn around is to stop, throw it in reverse, crank the wheel and back up until you’re perpendicular to the road, throw it back into drive & crank the wheel the other way and just drive on out in the opposite direction. It’s a lot more efficient than a three point turn.
There have been rare occasions where it couldn’t quite be done in two steps, but to be honest, things were so tight (very narrow road in two cases, and between buildings in the other – and that’s really all I can remember) I shouldn’t have been turning around there in the first place.
I have replaced the 3-point turn with the J-turn. Thank you to The Rockford Files and Knight Rider for showing me how its done.
What’s interesting to me about the button shifter is that when they are aligned vertically, it holds the traditional Reverse at the top and Drive at the bottom, even though there isn’t a mechanical reason for it anymore.
There was never a mechanical reason, it was always an ergonomic reason. The SAE standardized PRNDL in the 60s.
Only reason why I’m not opposed to button shifts is because my mom still prefers a manual in her 60s but can’t work a stick like she used to in her Lincoln. My old man has quit the pretense of being a “car guy” and got a little cheap runabout nissan versa with an auto.
I agree. My favorite implementation is the piano-key style Lincoln uses. It’s really sleek and integrated into the dash. Plus reasonably easy to learn by feel which one is which (park is the largest and you can count over to the right). Also found them to be tactile and pleasant.
The only part of this that I can’t wrap my head around is how you would mis-shift and “drive through your own garage door.” Especially if you were in your garage.
If you pulled in, and mis-shifted into drive instead of reverse, then you’d drive into the wall. And vise versa if you backed in. You’d always go into the wall not the door.
Also informal survey, who even starts their car in the garage without the door open?
Official Rankings:
Manual (when appropriate)Column shift auto (old school or truck style with physical movement)Console shift with physical movementPaddlesDialButtonsNubby no feedback shifter on columnNubby no feedback shifter on consoleTouchscreen
Really? I always hated how my grandpa’s old truck column shifter would drop so low I’d hit it with my knee.
that’s just a crappy column shifter then
In every truck or bench seat car with a column shifter I’ve driven, Drive is still at or a bit above horizontal and your knee is hitting the wheel long before its hitting the shifter.
Swap buttons and dial and that’s pretty much my ranking as well
Forgot that numbered lists can’t stand up to the rigors of a comment edit and now this looks stupid until the end of time.
That’s ok. Most of my comments look stupid until the end of time and I don’t even have the pretense of making fancy formatted lists.
When is manual not appropriate?
Trucks, FWD family cars, CUVs, etc.
My experience has mostly been that a stick shift doesn’t improve their driving experience much and sometimes actively hurts it.
You may disagree, but that can be for your own list I suppose.
Lol I own two manual fullsize pickups and a manual FWD family car. I definitely do disagree.
You only use the shifter at the start and end of a drive, so the tactility of the control isn’t as important as avoiding a software or electrical failure mode that locks your car in gear. Give me a big lever that I can use to take it out of gear, or park, and let me roll a dead car.
Or I guess delete the nice reliable linkage and introduce less reliable software instead just to enable auto-parking brake release and reduce edge-case groin injuries.
“You’d hit “R” when you start your drive, pull out, ”
Gosh, no. You’ll want to put it straight in to D as you’ll have reversed in to your driveway so you can see when it’s safe to pull out, because you aren’t a monster.
If the transmission is actually mechanical then yes, keep it that way. There aren’t a whole lot of those left though. Most modern cars with a lever are cooked in the event of a software or electrical failure anyways.
This ^^. Software / electrical is not inherently less reliable than mechanical linkages.
Mechanical linkages work just fine with a flat battery.
As someone peripheral to software and electrical and responsible for determining hardware faults, no way jose. Give us another 50 years to mature before considering us as idiot-proof as mechanical.
That nice reliable linkage that ensures every old pickup has 2nd gear where Park should be?
I’m in the UK, all our old pickups are manual.
Hey column manual shifters are great!
Column shifting isn’t just for slop boxes.
Pretty fast too once you learn how to take all the slack out of it before you press the clutch, and hold the lever in the open palm of your hand up by the steering column.
My brother had an SV1 Valiant with the push button shifters on the dash, there were no problems with that. As far as shifting in an automatic, I do it regularly going down steep hills, in Australia, and when towing. My wife’s car has paddles for her 6 speed auto and a T-bar selector, she never uses the paddles, I have a couple of times.
‘ “2” or “L” settings that I have never found any use for in my entire life.’
I guess you have never driven down a steep hill? It is pointless in the snow, but useful for engine braking.
I also hate console auto shifters, they are, as you said, a waste of space and intrusive. Still not a huge fan of buttons.
Exactly, and it’s not just useful for engine braking, it’s existential: by using 2/L, you avoid cooking the brakes and die in a fiery crash.
Engine braking is a godsend in the snow. It allows you to maintain a low speed going downhill, so that you don’t have to hit the brakes and upset the balance/traction of your car when it’s already limited by the slick road.
Engine braking works on half as many wheels as regular braking does, so half as much traction, and half as much deceleration. It’s also typically a Bad Thing™ to lock up just two wheels in a very low traction situation.
It’s just not that hard to brake gently and not lock them up.
It is only pointless in the snow if the transmission is programed poorly. If the transmission allows you to actually start in 2nd (or 3rd) the reduced torque at the wheels can make it easier to get moving w/o loosing traction. If you’ve got a poorly designed transmission that starts in 1st even when the shifter is in the “2” position then yes it is useless in the snow.
I’ve never driven a transmission that didn’t let you take off in 2nd.
No, the reason it’s pointless is because……. Why do I need to take off in 2nd to reduce wheel torque? Literally just press the skinny pedal a little less. Boom, reduced torque at the wheels. It’s actually that easy.
I always assumed that that was for hamfisted incompetent drivers who just floor it everywhere.
For their entire life span the 727 Torquefilte would’t allow second gear starts and most of the GM Turbohydramatics wouldn’t allow it either. Many modern cars that only have “L” and no manual shift mode won’t allow 2nd gear starts either.
Yes you can light foot it but having less torque multiplication does make it much easier. Sometimes it is so slippery that you don’t even have to give it throttle to have the wheels start spinning, so 2nd gear starts are nice to have.
I’ve driven down the descent into Adelaide, and a few others. Those never needed anything more than regular use of the brake pedal.
Maybe if I go to Pikes Peak it’ll come up. Most hills around here don’t require such fussing.
Yeah, you can drive down a mountain with just the brake pedal….. And get to the bottom with glowing brakes, and wear down your pads.
There are very good reasons to engine brake, even if the hill is not so steep that you are absolutely required to engine brake.
I definitely agree for EVs, CVTs, and similar. But I concede the idea you don’t use the lower automatic gear settings is not my experience.
I don’t know if Australia is really flat, but I definitely take advantage of my Prius’s “B” (engine braking) mode and I did occasionally use my old van’s 2nd gear going down really steep hills (such as a 2-mile 9% grade I went down every so often). I haven’t driven in snow a ton, but in trying to get out of bad situations, yes, the 2 or 1 settings were useful.
But your point stands–just add extra buttons for 1 and 2 if we need to. A big chunk of the point of automatic shifters is to stop us from doing any kind of money-shifting. Reportedly if I were to press “P” on the highway my Prius would just beep angrily at me and not, you know, add some extra neutrals or something.
I should add–I absolutely sympathize with crossing over in the interior. That’s one of the many “not an advertised feature but should definitely be one” features of full-size vans, being able to have *no* console so you can simply step across.
Yes, tactile gearshifts are awesome. But we’re trying to make more efficient use of space on the dashboard and console now. So tactile buttons with clear labels should be good enough.
Hey Australia isn’t all flat! I’ve used the gears for engine breaking in an auto but it’s rare
FWIW my Crosstrek is a CVT with a shifter lever on the console, but it also has paddles for manuel “shifting”. I only ever use it for engine braking down steep hills. But you could absolutely replace the lever on the console with buttons and still keep the paddlesaround the steering wheel.
Added bonus of climbing over the non-existent console in a van: using the sliding rear door in really tight parking!
Don’t live near mountains eh? Shifting down to save your brakes.
Doesn’t really come up, no
I miss the fun names companies use to give their tech. PowerFlite, TeleTouch, Hondamatic, Toyoglide, MPG Sentinel, etc.
It’s unfortunate nobody wants to have fun anymore with designs all take themselves way too seriously.
You forgot PowerShift – which apparently wasn’t taken seriously enough by the manufacturer