I Hate the Stupid Dial Shifter: Now With Poll

[Steve Urquell]

Grow up!!

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[Steve Urquell]

Yup, it's the only thing on the truck I can't stand either.

I don't see what 'space' it is saving. There's a couple of inches needlessly spent on the 'suggestion box slot' that could have easily been given over to a 'real' shifter.

It would be interesting, if Ford had offered the Maverick with either a dial or stick shifter (with no cost difference), which one customers would have opted for more. Alias, we will never know because the designers have spoken . . . all hail the Designers.

I'd take buttons on the dash over this thing. At least then you could feel what button is pushed if they actually depressed. It's a tactile thing for me but then again I've been driving stick shift for 40 years as well.

I have had the very same thing happen to me not long after I got it (2 years ago). No power, rpms up, anyway it happened when I set my coffee togo cup back in the cupholder. I wonder what happens if you hit reverse at that speed??

It's too easy to move for sure. Mine put itself in park at a couple MPH a couple weeks ago when backing up with the door open when I popped the seatbelt off. Made a grinding noise as it stopped.

 

[Raymundo76]

OK your choice !

 

[Leuf]

The reason why you turn it the wrong way is because you are used to the PRNDL display on the dash where the letters stay in the same place and you move the indicator to the correct letter. On the dial shifter it's the opposite. Your brain is constantly being given a display that is the opposite and then when you try to shift it wants it to work the same way. If they did it the other way around it would be so much easier to get used to. But once you understand why you're turning it the other way it becomes easier to get your brain wired to overcome the idiocy of the design.

 

[oysterville]

It all started downhill when they went to them horseless buggies.

 

[OTACORB]

Seriously! Come on man! There is plenty to complain about, but this dial shifter is just not one of them. I've never just flopped my hands around and cause it to shift out of gear. Who does that? Oh, I guess you! LOL

 

[kzipperle]

I’ve grown to like it.

 

[todd92]

No issues with it at all.

 

[Scupking]

Thought I was going to hate it but have no issues. I don’t even need to look at it.

 

[Montana]

I dislike the placement of the drive mode button. That one I do have to look at. Would make sense to have stuff like that in the steering wheel.

The dial never bothered me. Had one in a RAM previously.

 

[wax87]

I feel like I've given the dial a fair shake and have determined I frikken hate the stupid thing. It is just not intuitive to being able to grab it and put it where you need it to go without deliberately looking down at it.

The Mav is my wife's DD and I drive a manual trans Tacoma or MT Miata and am used to knowing by the feel what gear I'm in. I'm lost in the Maverick with the dial. I have had many, many episodes of going the wrong way with it when trying to turn quickly when turning around.

Today sealed the deal for me and the stupid thing.

Wife and I were driving an old 55 mph 2 lane backroad in Podunk, OK. Idiot 2 cars ahead was running 60mph for most of the time but would drift into a coma (or on the phone) and slow down randomly for no reason to 45mph.

I was getting frustrated being 2 cars back and after about the 15th time flopped my arms down at my sides like "Why, why?". As the lead car sped up I was not accelerating while pushing the gas pedal down.

I looked down and the tach was at 4,000rpms and we were slowing down. I immediately started thinking about reports in here of people's trucks doing this and being stranded with an electronic glitch.

Looked down again and the dial was in "N" neutral. Flipped it to "D" and all was well. Just a random flop of the hands and the truck was inoperable. No locking detent or button to push to make the shift, no click or tactile feel, just a flick and it's in neutral.

I really hate this dial.

Growing up is overrated.

 

[SLJ]

I got use to it on my Bronco Sport but it did not spin all the way around. You didn't have to look anywhere to see what position it was in. It had four positions and stopped at each end. Some idiot at Ford decided to just let it keep spinning on the Maverick.

 

[TrailMaster]

I have had the very same thing happen to me not long after I got it (2 years ago). No power, rpms up, anyway it happened when I set my coffee togo cup back in the cupholder. I wonder what happens if you hit reverse at that speed??

I've also bumped the dial into neutral -- going uphill over the Continental Divide. Briefly started going backwards downhill and it was unnerving as hell.

Pretty sure the computer won't allow going into reverse at speed tho. I won't be trying that to test what happens.

 

[Fcnrwy]

 

[OleFordGuy]

Never had an issue with the dial shifter. Works fine for me. I'd say operator error.
Maybe you just need to trade vehicles or just let your wife do the driving.

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