Investing in a new or new-to-you vehicle is an exciting time, with a vast array of model choices on the market today. Once you have the vehicle’s size in mind and the powertrain you need that best suits your lifestyle (a lot of commuting or a lot of off-road adventures, for example), exploring the options for sale can be narrowed down to a more select list and allow you to dive deeper into the details of each model.
One of the more overlooked details in car shopping can be the type of shifter that may come with your new vehicle. An incredible amount of new technology has hit the automotive market in recent years. Let’s go over some of the new options available today to help you determine which you’d prefer to drive for the life of the vehicle. Comfort and having what you find to be user-friendly components should be a high priority when choosing your next car, truck, or SUV. Settling for a technology you find annoying will take away the fun of the freedom of the road, and you deserve to find a vehicle that will bring you joy for years to come.
The shifter is the component of the vehicle that switches the gears of your automatic transmission: Park (P), Reverse (R), Neutral (N), Drive (D), and sometimes Low (L, D2, D3, etc.) are on the shifter of almost every automatic transmission vehicle on the road today. You have probably encountered a variety of shifters during your driving career and prefer a particular type. Selecting the gear the vehicle needs can be seen as a necessary annoyance or, in the case of a manual transmission in a fast sports car, be part of the fun of driving. Vehicle manufacturers offer different types of shifters, from a column shifter on the steering column to a dial shifter on the center console or dashboard. Some manufacturers are even designing technology to make the shifter obsolete, with manual shifting only available through the infotainment touchscreen. Let’s dive a little deeper into some of these shifter designs and bring up some points about each to think about when shopping for your next vehicle.
Cable Shifters: Floor and Column
The floor shifter was one of the first gear selectors available in vehicles. Located between the seats, the automatic transmission shifter stick is within the center console. Sometimes, it is physically attached to the transmission, but in some cases, such as a front-wheel drive vehicle, it is separated from the transmission. In either case, as you move the stick to select the desired gear, the floor shifter pushes and pulls cables or rods that move levers on the transmission to select the desired gear. The gear selection is usually backlit near the base of the floor shifter so you can see what gear you are in.
Column shifters are located behind and on the side of the steering wheel and are attached to the steering column. Like a floor shifter, the column shifter pushes and pulls on cables or rods attached to the transmission. The push or pull moves the determined amount of swing it takes to shift the transmission to the next gear. The instrument panel backlights the gear selection, or it may be displayed on a screen in newer vehicles. Floor and column shifters have been the most popular shifters used in automatic transmission cars, trucks, and SUVs for their mechanically straightforward connection to the transmission and user-friendly design.
Electronic Shifters: Button, Dial, and the Future of Shifting
Pushbutton shifters have a fascinating history. First invented in 1909 by the Vulcan Motor Devices Company of Philadelphia, the original button shifters were electronic. The buttons used electronic relays to activate solenoids that pushed rods in and out of position for gear selection. Only four automakers installed these button shifters into their 1913 models. Later, Chrysler offered pushbutton shifting on many of their models, but they redesigned the shifting to be done mechanically. Each button had a cable that physically moved the gear selector on the transmission. Chrysler offered this option up until the mid-1960s.
Today, you can find button shifters making a comeback, with many major automakers opting into a sleek button design within the dashboard or center console. Button shifting has returned to its electronic roots, which allows for greater safety features like automatically selecting the Park gear when drivers accidentally forget to tap the Park button. The backlit lettering makes finding the desired gear’s button easy and convenient.
Similar to pushbutton, rotary dial shifters are becoming more popular. Also very sleek in design, the dial can be placed anywhere on the dashboard or the center console where a floor shifter stick would have been. Again, backlit lettering lets you know where you need to turn the dial to select your desired gear. There are safety features in place to ensure you can’t accidentally shift to Reverse while driving down the highway if you confuse the dial shifter with the radio volume knob.
Interestingly, some auto manufacturers are returning to the column shifter, but with a twist. Instead of physically pulling or pushing the column shifter to the gear you’d like to select, the electronic column shifter only needs to be tapped gently up and down, or in some models, forward and back. You can find this type of shifter more commonly in electric vehicles. Tesla has recently taken this a step forward by eliminating any physical shifter and relying on the vehicle’s 360-degree camera view and proximity sensors to suggest a gear and allowing you to engage it with a step on the brake and turn of the wheel. If the wrong gear is suggested, such as Reverse when you need Drive, Tesla has a manual gear selection available through the center stack’s infotainment touchscreen. The automatic gear suggestion can also be turned off, allowing manual gear selection on this touchscreen to always be on.
Shift to What Moves You
All shifters perform well. Which style is best for you really boils down to personal preference. One downside of button, dial, and electric column shifters is the need to look at the shifter to select the proper gear when making a three-point turn or parking in a tight space. Most electronic shifters provide no tactile feedback, meaning that if you know you’re in Reverse, you can’t just count two clicks in a certain direction and know that you’re now in Drive. However, the shift away from the floor and original column shifters due to gear selection going electronic provides an undeniably great benefit: console and center stack space. Automakers can design clever storage and declutter the console by slimming the stick shifter down to a dial or a set of smooth buttons on the dash. Your phone, morning coffee, wallet, house keys, and laptop now have a place to be, and don’t end up sliding onto the floor or your lap while driving in commuter traffic. Your gym bag or purse will no longer get accidentally hooked on the shifter when tossing it over to the passenger seat. The button, dial and e-column shifters operate effortlessly and become intuitive to use after some practice miles. The future of automotive shifting looks bright and shifts smoothly.
