Are there any new cars made today with the gear shift on the steering column?
My sister-in-law, recently widowed, is shopping for a new car and really wants one with the gear shift on the column, not the floor or between the front seats.
Are they still available? I have looked at websites for car manufacturers and don’t see any on the photos of the interiors of the cars.
Thanks for anyone who can help.
She needs to look at the models that are designed to appeal to older drivers. These vehicles feature the old-style bench front seat and a column shift.
Among the models to look at are:
Buick Lucerne
Mercury Grand Marquis
Ford Crown Victoria
My Dad bought his first car in 1938. It was a new 1938 Chevrolet that had a floor shift and bucket seats. The next year this car was hit by a drunk driver and he replaced it with a 1939 Chevrolet. He thought that the 1939 was a real improvement because it had a bench seat and the shift on the column. Three people could ride in the front seat. It seems as though we have gone back the other way to the floor shift and individual seats in the last 30 years.
The last Ford Taurus that I drove did have a shifter on the column.
pickup trucks and some of the larger SUV’s are all I can think of.
I know that some cars have the shift lever coming from the dash, I think it is Honda for one. Surely large cars with automatic have the shifter on the column.
I recently drove a Mercury Sable (same thing as a Taurus too) - auto on the column. I think a lot of those mid-sized sedans (short of the boats) - still put it on the column
Well, don’t the “boats” as you call them, still have the shifters on the column?? I havent driven one lately.
I know the automatic CR-v’s at least used to come with a column shifter, though no bench seat. The Toyota Avalon used to be available with a column shift and bench seats, but for a couple years it was a very rare option and I think they may have done away with it entirely now.
Yes - I was just giving another set of possible options. What was wrong with that, exactly?
Nothing wrong, I just wanted to include the “boats”.
Thank you everyone for the help and suggestions. I passed them on to my sister-in-law and she was very grateful to you all. At least she knows where to focus on looking for her car.
If she has a good internet connection she can look on the different car web sites, check out the interior photos to make sure.
I checked some, one she might like would be the Chevrolet Impala, available with a split bench and column shifter. The same might be available on one or more of the Buicks - try out the ‘build you own’ functions. The CRV and Pilot shifts are on the console, not the column, but close.
I am 33 years old and single, and I prefer the column shifter myself. Why? It makes sense! A shifter on the floor is supposed to be “sporty”. However, very few drivers pretend their automatic is a manual shift…they put it in D and go. Meanwhile, a ton of storage space has been usurped by the shifter and its accompanying console. My 2004 Mazda Tribute SUV has a column shift and there is an enormous amount of storage space, cupholders, CD holders, etc, etc, that would otherwise by taken over by a floor mounted shifter. Sure enough, when Ford, Mazda and Mercury updated the Escape, Tribute, Mariner for 2005, gone was the column shifter, replaced with a floor shifter. At least half of that storage space disappeared in the 2005+ models. I guess they felt the column shifter was too traditional and not sporty (my guess).
Some new cars that still have the column shifter are the Buick Lucerne, Chevy Impala and maybe the Cadi DTS.
Mercedes Benz ML series AWD vehicles have column shift, plus steering-wheel buttons to change gears.