Ditto that. His 59 Rambler was the car I learned to drive with at age 16 with this push button configuration.
Posted on 02/08/2016 5:22:46 PM PST by rickmichaels
Electronic gear shifters on some newer Fiat Chrysler SUVs and cars are so confusing that drivers have exited the vehicles with the engines running and while they are still in gear, causing crashes and serious injuries, U.S. safety investigators have determined.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents posted during the weekend, has doubled the number of vehicles involved in an investigation of the problem, but it stopped short of seeking a recall. The agency found more than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries, mostly in Jeep Grand Cherokees.
Agency tests found that operating the centre console shift lever “is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection,†investigators wrote in the documents. They upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer to a recall. NHTSA will continue to gather information and seek a recall if necessary, a spokesman said.
The investigation could determine just how much auto makers can change the way cars operate when they introduce new technology, and how far they can stray from conventional ways of controlling vehicles that drivers are accustomed to.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
My 1963 Pontiac Tempest had them, push buttons on the dash
Yeah, and the Mode Switch still doesn’t do anything.
Had a 7 Speed Stick in my 2014 Corvette Stingray. I think I used 7th Gear a dozen times in the Year I owned it.
It’s a long way from my first Stick Shift, a 50 Ford Pickup.
That’s good to know.
When I lived in France in the 1970s, a French woman told me that they do not use automatics because the driver has less control over the car.
Mercedes has a lot that are stems on the steering wheel - push a button on the end of the stem to put it in Park and move the stem up for Reverse and down for Drive.
I have some trouble when i drive my wife's Toyota after being so used to my Merc - It isn't odd for me to activate the wipers when I try to put it in Park.
The first thing I did was play with all the options to see how everything worked because mine will put it in Park and activate the emergency brake if you turn it off while in gear - it also has a nasty habit of putting it in Park if you open the door while rolling - probably a good feature but has potential to really mess up the locking detent on the flywheel - if that's even how they do it with them..
it is a turbo. I now understand this detail.
Ditto that. His 59 Rambler was the car I learned to drive with at age 16 with this push button configuration.
Chrysler and Ford had pushbuttons. Ford’s was electric and had problems early on so they only offered it a couple. Chrysler had a mechanical setup from ‘57-64 and was reliable.
Are you talking about the rotary gear selector that Chrysler tried a few years ago? If so, I agree, that thing was a disaster. Totally non-intuitive. Way too easy to wind up in the wrong position. They tried to overcome this by having it lock you out of certain positions at certain times, but it was still a bad design. I’m almost surprised there wasn’t a recall on it.
Ah, a flappy paddle gearbox for the driver who wants to pretend he’s driving an F1 car.
I was just about to post a similar picture. Those push-button shifters apparently got people into trouble when they punched the wrong buttons so they were abandoned quickly.
The problem with push buttons is you have to look down at the buttons. A well designed shift lever lets you feel which gear you’re in without looking.
They call it “sport” mode, not “standard.”
the edsel had shift buttons in the center of the steering wheel
... That’s a Porsche GT3 car, not a dragster.
If the shift is electronic, then they should be able to rig it so that hitting the stop button shifts to Park, and THEN turns off the engine.
Bad engineering.
Worst shifter ever. I have one in a Grand Cherokee. It is computer controlled and not an actually linked shifter. Placing it in park means holding it in the full forward position until the computer shifts the transmission into park, so often it sticks in Reverse instead of park.
Getting out of an automatic car wash that pulls the car through, the brake must be applied to shift out of neutral but the shifter delays going into drive such that the car wash freaks out and stops the line.
Dumbest designed shifter ever.
If the car isn’t intuitive when it comes to basic functions, then it is poorly engineered.
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Agreed... The only time I had to refer to my Camry’s manual is to learn how to turn off those damn automatic door locks.
My new Honda CRV has CVT. (Continuously Variable Transmission)
It would make a good comedy show to take an old 3 on the tree truck and film it as people tried to drive it.
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