redesign the shifter

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This makes me think back to my youth and learning to drive a standard shift on the column on a Chevy Truck. Reverse was UP and towards you and 1st was down and towards you and 2nd was UP and away from you and 3rd was DOWN and away from you. And sometimes the linkage would get jammed up between 1st and 2nd Oh what fun to have to pull over and lift the hood and smack the linkage on the engine side of the firewall and straighten it out. I survived. Oh yea, and if you had no “umph” left in the 12 volt battery you could always get a running start by yourself on a level road and jump in and dump the clutch in 2nd gear. I am a cockroach and I can adapt and overcome. Mouse shiffter, no problem. And my brother taught me well to overcome the “clutch trama” just push down hard on the skinny pedal on the right and let off the fat pedal on the left, no coughing at all.

Even running a bulldozier now is done with joysticks and mouse type shiffters, heck of a lot easier than all the old style levers and pedals.
 
Eyeresearch said:
Even running a bulldozier now is done with joysticks and mouse type shiffters, heck of a lot easier than all the old style levers and pedals.
And which way does the operator push the joystick to go forward?
 
Even after almost a month I still have to stop and think about which direction is for reverse and which is for drive. It follows the pattern of an automatic transmission, but doesn't operate like one since the lever does not stay in a particular position for each mode. It would make more sense to me if forward was for moving forward and backward was for moving backward. Park should probably moving to the left or right, not pushing a button. Even better, get rid of it and put this function on the steering wheel. It's a waste of space where it is.
 
My only complaint is there is no place to rest my hand, standard or automatic I would rest my hand on the shifter... Guess I have to hold my wife's had... Could be worse.
 
Wallace1946 said:
My only complaint is there is no place to rest my hand, standard or automatic I would rest my hand on the shifter... Guess I have to hold my wife's had... Could be worse.

I rest my hand on the shifter. I've never had any problems with it. I also tend to drive with ECO mode off, and shift to ECO mode when coming to a stop or I need to slow down a bit. Resting my hand on the shifter makes that quick and easy.
 
DAlanStewart said:
Even after almost a month I still have to stop and think about which direction is for reverse and which is for drive. It follows the pattern of an automatic transmission, but doesn't operate like one since the lever does not stay in a particular position for each mode. It would make more sense to me if forward was for moving forward and backward was for moving backward. Park should probably moving to the left or right, not pushing a button. Even better, get rid of it and put this function on the steering wheel. It's a waste of space where it is.

It is exactly like the Prius and lets face it, but many EV owners are current or ex-Prii owners too. It is very familiar. I really like the shifter in all my Prii and the Leaf being the same is just icing on the cake.
 
It's a selector not a joystick, folks. We're not playing Pac-Man :lol:

Pacscr.gif
 
:idea: The metaphor I use is the way the car would move if my hand - via the shifter - would be touching the ground.

The hand would push forward to move the car back, and vice versa.
 
HyperMiler said:
:idea: The metaphor I use is the way the car would move if my hand - via the shifter - would be touching the ground.

The hand would push forward to move the car back, and vice versa.

Or a better example would be, rowing a canoe.

I am used to the way it is, and now I like it.
 
In the age of never having enough cup holders, I find it surprising that auto manufacturers still use anything that resembles a mechanical gear selector and placed in the center console. Most are nothing more than electronic switches. A simple touch pad takes less space, has fewer moving parts, and can be placed on the face of a dashboard in the driver's line of sight. That would free up the center console for a decently placed armrest.
 
rogersleaf said:
In the age of never having enough cup holders, I find it surprising that auto manufacturers still use anything that resembles a mechanical gear selector and placed in the center console. Most are nothing more than electronic switches. A simple touch pad takes less space, has fewer moving parts, and can be placed on the face of a dashboard in the driver's line of sight. That would free up the center console for a decently placed armrest.
I love the push-button solution that Fiat uses in their 500e. Sadly that vehicle isn't available in Texas.
Fiat-500e-Interior-02-720x481.jpg
 
rogersleaf said:
In the age of never having enough cup holders, I find it surprising that auto manufacturers still use anything that resembles a mechanical gear selector and placed in the center console. Most are nothing more than electronic switches. A simple touch pad takes less space, has fewer moving parts, and can be placed on the face of a dashboard in the driver's line of sight. That would free up the center console for a decently placed armrest.
I've never had any issues with the armrest, save that I'd rather it not be fabric covered. The location is fine for me, perhaps because I have the seat all the way back on the track. Sitting so far back is one reason I'm very glad the LEAF doesn't have a dash mounted shifter: it is awkward to reach that far forward.

Like some others here, I think the shifter works fine and I long ago got used to it. And the LEAF is adequately endowed with cup holders.
 
I've never had any issues with the armrest, save that I'd rather it not be fabric covered. The location is fine for me, perhaps because I have the seat all the way back on the track. Sitting so far back is one reason I'm very glad the LEAF doesn't have a dash mounted shifter: it is awkward to reach that far forward.

Like some others here, I think the shifter works fine and I long ago got used to it. And the LEAF is adequately endowed with cup holders.
It's a short leg issue for me. The seat is forward, neither armrest has good position. The Honda Civic I had before this had a sliding center armrest which worked perfect for my size.
 
johnrhansen said:
It took me a minute to keep from getting mixed up with fwd and rev. It's opposite as to what I would intuitively think. But I got used to it.

I've had my Leaf over two months and haven't gotten used to it yet. My brother backed his into another car not long after getting his Leaf. Maybe my family just expects a car to go forward when we push a lever forwards. The shifter is my biggest gripe about the Leaf.
 
BlueandFav said:
johnrhansen said:
It took me a minute to keep from getting mixed up with fwd and rev. It's opposite as to what I would intuitively think. But I got used to it.

I've had my Leaf over two months and haven't gotten used to it yet. My brother backed his into another car not long after getting his Leaf. Maybe my family just expects a car to go forward when we push a lever forwards. The shifter is my biggest gripe about the Leaf.
Funny thing is I'm the opposite. Having driven automatics with on the floor shifters I just naturally pulled back on the shifter to go forward. Of course the first time I thought about it explaining to someone else on how to shift to forward, pulling back on the shifter seemed like the wrong way to go :? Also having come from on the floor stick shift cars you'd think I would be tempted to push forward on the mouse just like on such manual cars you push the shifter forward for first gear, reverse is often times to the right and down(or back) :?
IMO our older('07) Prius has the best shifter, on the dash(and out of the way) down is forward, up is reverse which eliminates the confusion of forward and reverse. Better yet was an older Plymouth Valient(and I had it on a Dodge Dart as well) that had push button shifting, a number for each gear and a lever to the right of the buttons that you'd pull down to put it in Park :cool:
 
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