so people that don't know how to drive stick can still think they're cool
Posted on 02/08/2016 5:22:46 PM PST by rickmichaels
Electronic gear shifters on some newer Fiat Chrysler SUVs and cars are so confusing that drivers have exited the vehicles with the engines running and while they are still in gear, causing crashes and serious injuries, U.S. safety investigators have determined.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents posted during the weekend, has doubled the number of vehicles involved in an investigation of the problem, but it stopped short of seeking a recall. The agency found more than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries, mostly in Jeep Grand Cherokees.
Agency tests found that operating the centre console shift lever “is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection,†investigators wrote in the documents. They upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer to a recall. NHTSA will continue to gather information and seek a recall if necessary, a spokesman said.
The investigation could determine just how much auto makers can change the way cars operate when they introduce new technology, and how far they can stray from conventional ways of controlling vehicles that drivers are accustomed to.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
A good portion of new 18 wheelers are automatic and a fair number of those are pushbutton. Depending on what the buyer wants they can be mounted on the side of the seat, on the dash or on the console. Or it can be a lever mounted on the console or floor.
Rambler American!
In High School, my date night vehicle (courtesy of Mom) progressed from a '52 DeSoto (with 'suicide' doors and a 'semi-automatic' transmission) to the '59 Rambler American to a '64 Plymouth Valiant.
Not exactly the coolest kid in town. :-)
Just drove my bro in laws Grand Cherokee Summit. The shifter and 4WD selector is very weird. Doubt it will go anywhere my old fashioned Wrangler will.
They’ve gone totally gay in their design, but are finding that some of their customers are NOT graphic artists and interior decorators...and it’s costing them, big time.
It wasn’t about the car.
It was about the seats.
;-)
>>> They have had push button transmission before. I forgot who had them in the 50s and 60s but they had similar problems. <<<
If I remember correctly, Plymouth and Edsel both had pushbutton shifting in the center of the steering requiring you to look at the steering wheel to shift.
Chrysler had one-can not think which model
Some of us would be fine with three on the column or four on the floor. I understand that today’s car thief is often unsuccessful because they never learned to drive a car with a clutch and standard gear shift.
I can just see lots of people driving around everywhere in first gear not knowing what to do next.
so people that don't know how to drive stick can still think they're cool
Sport
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Aha! Thanks for explaining! I swear I learn something new here on FR everyday.
Wow. Then why even have a lever?
First time I’d had to touch the clutch on my 1986 Nissan Hardbody was today and only because a hydraulic damper seal failed. Clutch itself is fine. Back in business now. This will be the girl’s rig next year.
It was about the seats.
Yeah, I got a lot of razzing about them from my buddies. Only time they were used was on camping trips when it was pouring rain & I got tired of a leaky tent.
IIRC, it even had seat belts. Or maybe that was the '59 Volvo PV544?
Dual-clutch paddle shifters are equivalent, but faster; in F1 nobody uses anything else, and nobody remains who right-foot brakes. The current Mustang and Fusion have those as options along with a bunch of Euro cars. There are a few consumer cars (Honda Fit is one, or was) which have paddles but aren't dual clutch. That nightmare is like a creaky newbie using a manual shifter, except that you, the driver, have no idea when the next gear will actually engage. H-style manuals are fun, and heel-toe blips are a fine art, but they're still slower than sequentials. Sorry, purists! However, the disaster in the above post is absolute trash, designed no doubt by focus group to be 'cool' like an sequential shifter but where the marketing guys quaked in fear that their target audience would flee at the thought of *actually* shifting.
Most of the time - and I don't know that breed of car to be absolutely sure - that would be “D” (automatic transmission” and “S” or “Standard - where the lever drops into a manually-controlled mode kinda of like a standard transmission. If you are in “D” you drive like a “normal” automatic transmission.
Go to “S” standard (or “M” manual mode on other cars), then the transmission thinks it is an automatic after 1st gear. Usually, you drop into that mode, then bump the shift lever sideways to go up or down 1 gear. Lets you pretend you are actually shifting gears.
Yep, even a truck with a hi/lo rear and I'll be okay.
Rambler had the push button transmission on station wagons, and Chrysler may have had one, too.
“Flasher” lights and windshield “Wiper” buttons on a drag-car steering wheel? 8<)
We are the same, with 5 in the same model group. You get in, you instinctively know where the ignition, lights, wipers, etc. are. It’s great, and makes changing vehicles a piece of cake.
I can tell you that as of six months ago, it's virtually impossible to rent an automatic in Italy.
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