Yeah, bigger cup holders, a cooler, and a little picnic table for my Angry Whopper! I’m afraid that’s where we might go with the extra room. But I agree that electronic push button gear selection could be a reasonable alternative. If we avoid the picnic accessories.
@the same mountainbike–My parents had a 1960 Rambler with the mechanical pushbuttons and had no problems. Of the people I knew with Chrysler products and the pushbutton automatic, I don’t remember any of them having problems with that mechanical linkage setup. However, I do remember all kinds of problems with the owners of the Edsel Corsair and Citation models that had the electrically operated pushbuttons for the transmission.
I really never saw an advantage to the pushbuttons over the lever to operate the automatic transmission. I remember that in 1955, Chrysler products operated the automatic transmission with a lever that protruded from the dashboard as opposed to lever on the steering column. The next year, Chrysler had the pushbuttons for the automatic transmission. My 2011 Toyota Sienna has a lever coming out of the dashboard for the automatic transmission. I suppose pushbutton operated transmissions will follow along soon. History repeats itself.
Push button shifters I kind of like the idea too, but…
This is just a guess but I would say for safety reasons. In this day and age, push buttons would present no problem but accidentally touching reverse in the old days as a button while going 70 mph without the benefit of a sequential lever might make for an exciting day. I had a Desoto with push buttons which was cool, but it made me nervous at times ;=() as I had to look at the dash to shift. . Today though, it would seem perfectly doable but in some cars, the shifters are but tiny wands and actually take up less space in the mounting area, There would be a plethora of buttons for sport shifting etc. without a shifter. You can now feel the engagement, while with buttons, you have to look. Besides, we are creatures of habit. Today’s shifters are like joy sticks anyway.
With today’s fully electronic transmissions, there’s no need for a shift lever
In fact, there’s no need for any physical connection between the shift lever, push buttons, etc. and the actual transmission case
Benz did away with their console mounted shift lever years ago
They went to a little stub “shifter” on the steering column . . . with absolutely no physical connection to the transmission
Drive by wire has arrived . . . a long time ago, I might add
Well, this isn’t an auto, but I would love to see someone reproduce the old Ford 8N tractor, even if it was a lawn mower.
Perhaps the reputation for problems with the linkage was undeserved. Or perhaps my memory is inaccurate. It was many years ago. I’m never sure… But I still like the idea. Personal preference, I admit.
Dag, you are 100% correct; shifters for anything but manuals are purely joysticks. There are countless other ways with today’s technology. Pushbuttons, multiposition rotating knobs, slide controls… the only way I hope to never see is touchscreen controls, and I have no doubt I’ll see it tried.
Db, you have described it beautifully. I’m sure the techies now designing cars will come up with ways I cannot envision. I only hope they work. {
While it’s not related to anything with wheels or wings and considerably less glamourous, I can’t find any fault with the microwave I bought for my wife.
I bought that GE microwave in the first part of 1984 for about 400 bucks (not a small amount of money at the time and with an insider discount to boot) and here it is 2014 with the thing still looking and working fine after a ton of use.
It occurs to me that if ever goes go belly-up whatever replaces it will not have that kind of longevity.
Someone is already making a pushbutton gear selector. Can’t remember who. One of the small companies. I fully expect most cars to have something dash mounted within a few years, at least for models that only come with an automatic. Study shifters like you find on the Press and minivans might be best. That space they currently occupy is too valuable for something else, and a shifter right by the steering wheel is handy. The automotive press hates the Mercedes version of a column shifter because it doesn’t really move so you have to look at the shift indicator in the instrument panel to be sure you’re in the right gear.
Newer Dodge (sorry, RAM) trucks already have a rotary knob selector to choose the gears. It’s an odd looking arrangement that for me would take some getting used to. I have a buddy with one and he says he doesn’t notice it any more. With no mechanical linkage, you can use any ‘interface’ you want.
Didn’t those old push button transmissions use vacuum to actuate the gears? Or was it indeed a purely mechanical linkage?
(as a side note, the site is apparently censoring my use of the word k.n.o.b.) Really?
Censor and delete happens(we even get a disclaimer threw in occasionally)@Elly,there is a reproduction 8N now,but its a Diesel and runs about 50K(New Holland may make it) Ford had to obselete the 8N,because they were rebuilt so often and so handy,new tractor sales were affected-Kevin
“Perhaps the reputation for problems with the linkage was undeserved. Or perhaps my memory is inaccurate”
No, your recollection is accurate, mountainbike!
My father had a '59 Plymouth, and I can recall that on at least two occasions, the Drive button disappeared into the dashboard when he engaged that gear. Apparently, the local indy mechanic was able to do at least a temporary fix, because he didn’t need to work on the car for very long before getting us back on the road.
And, as db4690 correctly notes, there is no longer any need for mechanical connection between the gear selector and the transmission. Jaguar has been using a “pop-up” rotary knob for gear selection for several years, and it appears that some other mfrs are doing something similar. Thanks to electronic controls, there is no need for a shift lever–except for some folks’ longing to cling to traditional methods.
Getting back to the topic of the famed Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine, here is a link to a photo of the production area for those engines at the RR factory:
I had a '62 Falcon. Vacuum operated wipers. Played Heck going up hills!
Sorry for the oversight. You are now free to write all you want about knobs without censorship. Fairly recently we implemented a filter for naughty words, but apparently it was a blunt instrument with Anglophile taste. I removed the word from the filter list.
Interestingly, in the fields of auto mechanics and physics many technical words are common that would in other contexts be appalling.
Don’t see anything appalling
If you can ONLY think of the slang “definition” . . . you need help
@VDCDriver My very frst aquaintance with the Merlin engines was during World War II. We were right in line with the RAF bombing runs from the British airfields to the German industrial Ruhr area. The Lancaster bombers each with 4 Merlin engines came over at night and usually a squad had upwards of 30 Lancasters flying at a much lower altuitude than today’s jets. The noise was horrendous, and as a 5-6 year old kid, it made me scared of planes for a long time. Every now and then one would crash.
US bombers came over during the daytime, and did not seem as scary.
@cdaquilla: Thanks for your efforts. It will be fun someday if someone makes the word “the” for example, a slang term for something nasty. Hilarity will ensue seeing what the censors do…
@Same
Touch screen controls for shifting ? Funny ! What a hoot that would be the first time it appears. What about virtual control like the games in " WII driving. " They could just move their hands around while touching nothing. The old mind is running wild on the thought of it. We can’t really laugh it off. After all, fighter pilots have been doing aspects of it for years. Like, where ever you look, the car turns.
“Like, where ever you look, the car turns.”
Hmmmm…Not a good idea, dagosa.
Think of all the shapely girls who would be run over if cars turned toward whatever the driver chose to look at.
;-))