I Hate the Stupid Dial Shifter: Now With Poll

[Tom 71 Maverick 24]

I don't like the roulette wheel shifter that just spins around with no stops. The proper place for the shifter for the last 100 years have been on the steering column.

Ford needs to follow GM's lead and move to an electronic Column-Mounted Stalk.

I'd settle for a mechanical linkage - old school, trouble-free, and user-repairable.

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[d7602002]

I didn't like it at first but now I'm used to it and it's second nature. Just like putting on a seatbelt, or turning off auto start stop. I don't think in my 40+ years of driving have i ever knocked the car into neutral by accident.

 

[ryde4ever]

I couldn't tell you how many times that I have had a regular gear shifter knocked into neutral. My wife has hit it with her purse. The dog has bumped it. I have bumped it while grabbing my drink or swatting at a bee. I have yet to bump the dial. I prefer a regular shifter just because I am more used to it, but no complaints about the dial.

 

[Steve Urquell]

I didn't like it at first but now I'm used to it and it's second nature. Just like putting on a seatbelt, or turning off auto start stop. I don't think in my 40+ years of driving have i ever knocked the car into neutral by accident.

I have never knocked any other car into neutral before and have been driving for 40yrs as well. This is a first for me.

It wasn't like I was flailing around like a maniac either, just a drop of the hands downward. Could easily do it reaching for anything near the dial

 

[CurtisW]

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 took my driving test (2) in a 1971 Maverick with "three on the tree" so quit your bitchin!

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Here are some pictures of what a simulated gear shift would be like sticking up from the console. Along with a couple of cups in the cup holder.

I guarantee if there was a shift lever there people would be pissing and moaning about it being in the way of the cup holders.

 

[Mavericko]

https://fordauthority.com/2023/12/ford-maverick-owner-replaces-rotary-dial-with-f-150-shifter/amp/

 

[Steve Urquell]

Here are some pictures of what a simulated gear shift would be like sticking up from the console. Along with a couple of cups in the cup holder.

I guarantee if there was a shift lever there people would be pissing and moaning about it being in the way of the cup holders.

That's why it should be a column shift. Here's my proposed design. Extra long for extra leverage or so your passenger or hobos washing your windshield can reach in and shift it for you.

 

[Eggflipper]

Drive, spin to the right. Park, spin to the left. Reverse from drive, two clicks to the left. Reverse from park, one click to the right. No looking required. Enough said. I do however enjoy it going into park by itself if I am feeling lazy and just turn the ignition off.

 

[MightyMaverick]

I view it the opposite. I find it very tactile. And like someone mentioned already, there's a gear readout in your gauge cluster so you never have to look down at it. That's not a new technology either as traditional automatics with a mechanical gear shifter have one too. I've never bumped it by accident and ended up in the wrong gear. I find that very hard to do. I have switched it in the wrong direction but I can count on one hand how many times I've done that. So it's not a big deal at all.

And I hate to say it but I think this sounds a bit like operator error. Some can't adapt to new technology and instead of learning it, they get aggravated at it and long for the past. Sure, I like a mechanical gear shifter too like most others. My mom's Jeep has one and definitely has that nice, satisfying feel of physically putting it in gear. But I am willing to learn new types of shifting such as push buttons or rotaries. And it helps that I was a service porter at one point so I got very acquainted with different types of shifters. If you knew going in that the Maverick was going to have a rotary shifter when you're accustomed to manual transmissions, you shouldn't have bought it.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Drive, spin to the right. Park, spin to the left. Reverse from drive, two clicks to the left. Reverse from park, one click to the right. No looking required. Enough said. I do however enjoy it going into park by itself if I am feeling lazy and just turn the ignition off.

I feel that the clicks or indents should be a little more defined. I do not understand the reason why the knob has to spin all the way around.

 

[hurrah]

I wasn't a big fan when I first got mine but over the last year and a half I evolved so that now I wish all my vehicles had it. The best part is about 50 percent of the time when I stop I forget to put it in park and it thankfully it takes care of my absent mindness. Now when I get in my Ranger I find the shifter a pain in the a__ and wish it had a dial. On the other hand I wish it had a lever operated parking brake-I would feel much more secure if I could pull the brake lever and hear it click rather than diddling with that little parking flap!

 

[TheShark]

I wasn't a big fan when I first got mine but over the last year and a half I evolved so that now I wish all my vehicles had it. The best part is about 50 percent of the time when I stop I forget to put it in park and it thankfully it takes care of my absent mindness. Now when I get in my Ranger I find the shifter a pain in the a__ and wish it had a dial. On the other hand I wish it had a lever operated parking brake-I would feel much more secure if I could pull the brake lever and hear it click rather than diddling with that little parking flap!

I have the same experience with my Bronco, I got so use to the dial in the Mav I forget to put the Bronco in park. Really the only thing I miss is something to rest my hand on while driving, I think that goes back to all the years I drove a manual.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

I have the same experience with my Bronco, I got so use to the dial in the Mav I forget to put the Bronco in park. Really the only thing I miss is something to rest my hand on while driving, I think that goes back to all the years I drove a manual.

# 1 Thing I miss not have a shift lever, a place to rest my hand.

 

[r100gs91]

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.

Then why did you buy the truck.

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