I Hate the Stupid Dial Shifter: Now With Poll

[Edge Haley]

It's my wife's vehicle. I only drive it on weekends and on vacation.

It's not the end of the world though, just a feature I don't like. Overall I like the vehicle and the mileage is great. It's more comfortable to drive than my Tacoma.

Just because I don't like the shifter doesn't make me a hater who needs to be destroyed or banned from posting or forced to sell the truck.

Your biggest problem is that you are not a regular driver and it's much different that your daily driver. One of Fords reasons for the rotary gear shifter is it is more efficient on MPG. If you want to accelerate press the MODE button (bottom left) 5 times quickly and you are in Sport mode...and Sport Mode instantly switches to full gas engine and down shifts the transmission providing a lot of power for acceleration.

Little Porsche to the left has a PDK transmission, that allows you to dial a gear or use paddles to change the "automatic" transmission...wish the Maverick had that ability but I would not want to add $2,000-$5,000 more to the sales price....The Maverick has those features that make it an ECONOMY vehicle....no complaints from me.

I have accidentally put the Maverick in REVERSE once when driving cross country at 70 mph.....it would not go in to reverse. I do sometimes confuse the temperature dial with the transmission dial...more than once...Ford should have made them different size dials.

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[SLINGSHOT]

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[SLINGSHOT]

Accidentally turned mine to neutral Monday on I 65 in Kentucky. It’s just a bad design… period!!

Sell it or give it away.

 

[Tbone289]

I think if it simply rotated the other direction and had end stops it'd be fine. I like the idea of it being unobtrusive but the execution is poor.

The other direction...? Do you mean DNRP, rotating the opposite direction of all the column shifters made for decades?

 

[STARCOMMTREY1]

You shouldn't have to look at anything. Shifters in most any other car on Earth can be moved forward or back by feel and don't spin all the way around either direction without stops and can't be shifted out of gear with a wrist flick.

If you love it, groovy, dig on it. I hate it.

Once I was used to mine I never looked at it. Still dont.

 

[Guv]

@Leuf nailed it. It's the way our brains are trained to see the arc of a shifter travel from P to D on a dash display. I struggle most doing 3pt turns as well.

Same here, worse than Austin Power’s in a golf cart.

 

[V-blue Mav]

Accidentally turned mine to neutral Monday on I 65 in Kentucky. It’s just a bad design… period!!

Agreed, bad design. So question is, being how it's all electronically controlled, why couldn't they make the knob where you could push it down flush with the console and then push it again to pop it back up with the use of a spring? Wouldn't take an extra second. You're welcome Ford.

 

[HeyBales]

Same here, worse than Austin Power’s in a golf cart.

Well now there's a way to get the muscle memory trained!

Now - to do that in a parking lot, or on a street that may have traffic so feeling under pressure to finish it?

Bring a friend - makes bets as to when a neighbor comes out to inquire what in the world you are doing.

 

[HeyBales]

The other direction...? Do you mean DNRP, rotating the opposite direction of all the column shifters made for decades?

Ya - I'm picturing the top of dial following that normal arc of PRND, so spin clockwise is correct from P to D. Top goes right.

 

[Guv]

they claim it frees up space. i don't like the dial either. i could go for a stubby stick that frees space and also is intuitive. perhaps us old-timers hate it more as we've been using stick shifters since the 1960's and earlier.

And saves space for what?
I have enough problems without storing a bunch of junk around my knob.
I miss my old top loader with Hurst shifter and tee handle.

 

[Steve Urquell]

The other direction...? Do you mean DNRP, rotating the opposite direction of all the column shifters made for decades?

You are right. I had to go out and look at it. Not sure why it feels so wrong though.

 

[James K]

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.

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.

I'm not a fan but don't hate it. Your instance makes no sense to me It's like hating the placement of the accelerator because you can't keep a beat of the song on the radio with your right foot. However, I respect your right to hate it.

 

[Steve Urquell]

Sell it or give it away.

Thanks for the great advice. I gave it away. My wife annoys me putting her dishes in the dishwasher the wrong way too. Just filed for divorce.

 

[Montana]

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object. I love the dial, fight me.

lol I feel the same way.

I've made a mistake with it a couple times and I do think there is room for improvement, like maybe a more tactile feel and more force required to turn it. I dunno... I like it so whatever.

 

[HeyBales]

Your biggest problem is that you are not a regular driver and it's much different that your daily driver. One of Fords reasons for the rotary gear shifter is it is more efficient on MPG. If you want to accelerate press the MODE button (bottom left) 5 times quickly and you are in Sport mode...and Sport Mode instantly switches to full gas engine and down shifts the transmission providing a lot of power for acceleration.

More efficient?

You are referencing hybrid obviously for mode selector (related to to gear shifter how?), but how would that matter for either truck?

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