Automakers have different lever designs, means of unlocking them and placing them in different places
Through Chris Chilton
1 hour ago
As far as the driver is concerned, one manual transmission in a new car is pretty much the same as another. Certainly, the transmissions themselves may be different in the way they are oriented in the chassis, and perhaps some have three axles and others only two.
But that all happens backstage, if you like, or under the floor. At the top, in the interior of the car, the driver can be fairly confident that whatever he is driving, he can reach for the console without looking, locate the gear lever and easily row through the gears, thereby maybe only have to look down once to see where the reverse is. convenient.
But with automatic transmissions it’s a different story. Some have shift levers coming out of the steering column, which don’t look cool but are very easy to use, and some have buttons, which usually aren’t. The majority, whether dual-clutch cars or traditional epicyclic automatics, have some sort of shift lever. But even then, it’s a free for all in terms of where it’s located and what form it takes, even on cars of the same make.
QOTD: What’s the best manual transmission you’ve shifted?
The stubby shifter of a Porsche 911 is similar to that of the latest Panamera, but while the sports car’s is on the console between the seats, the sedan’s is mounted on the dashboard between the gauge cluster and the infotainment screen. There you will also find the shifter of the electric Taycan.
The 911’s lever looks quite stylish if you like your shifters to resemble the lovechild of an electric shaver and a 1950s microphone. But its size and shape make it not entirely satisfying to use (PDK-equipped GT3s retain the larger, older lever because the new one lacks push-pull shifting between individual gears in manual mode).
Nevertheless, it’s more satisfying than the annoying switches you find on modern Ferraris, which are designed to be reminiscent of a classic open-gate shifter but feel far too clunky and insubstantial.
I still love the positive action you get from a console lever that you have to physically move through fixed positions, rather than the electronic levers they are increasingly replacing, and that you have to push or pull to switch between Drive and Reverse .
They have the advantage of automatically engaging Park when you turn off the engine, but it drives me crazy that they often don’t shift when you want them to because you haven’t pressed the switch properly or pressed the brake pedal hard enough.
That’s why my favorite shifter at the moment is the one on the 2023 Lexus RX that I’ve been using for the past few months. The lever is small, but larger and better shaped than a Porsche’s, and feels great in the hand. There are no fiddly buttons to press, you just pull the thing towards you and then push it forward for reverse or back for drive.
It’s the same basic setup you get in the Lexus NX and Toyota Prius, and the control layout is the same as older Prius models, although their shifters didn’t feel as premium and were mounted on the dash.
Which car manufacturer do you think makes the best automatic shifter? Leave a comment and let us know.
