RLXXI

I guess I can drive anything. Had a 79 GMC 2500 3 on the tree, shoulda seen me under the hood on Canal St. New Orleans in a tux yanking that efffing linkage back into place. Fail!!!!! Pumped the clutch and lugged it all the way to the ceremony in 3rd.

I should have taken that as a bad omen cause that marriage drained 17 years of my life away.
.

johnday in BFE

iTrader: (1)

LOL, I can imagine that, for real! I drove plenty of those things. The worse I remember was a Dodge pickup that was used as the service vehicle at the gas station I worked at as a kid. '61 IIRC, the bloody clutch was so heavy that at stop lights I had to throw it in nuetral, let alone no power steering. I hated that thing.

RubyRed Canadian

I have an XLT with the flow through console and the column shifter. I wanted the console because it has tons of storage, looks way better than the jump seat and the leather lids is comfortable for your elbow.

I went with the non-sport model since I wanted the column shifter (plus the sport sticker is ugly). Why would I want to waste the space in my console area with a shifter that is only used at the start and end of a trip?

When we travel, I have easy access to my drinks and I use the area where the floor shifter would be to hold a bag of chips/nuts/candies etc. I would hate losing that precious spot to a floor shifter.

If I upgrade to an Lariat (5 seater) I don't think I have a choice...it only comes with the floor shifter I believe.

Chomp Em

All Hat No Cattle

Completely agree, but watch out if this becomes popular.

2019 Ford Edge. Uh-oh, LOL.

RL1990

The **** is on the way. Electronic shifters allow for computer control of transmission gear selection which in the future is going to be needed for self driving. On the newest Lincolns with the **** and active park assist the driver simply presses and holds the park assist button and the computer will do all the rest in low speed auto drive. When it sees a parking spot it will stop shift itself into reverse, back in, stop shift in to drive and move forward. If necessary it will shift into reverse and drive again if the vehicle is not straight in the spot. When complete it will chime and shift itself into park.

With that said I prefer the steering column stalk electronic shifter Mercedes and Tesla uses. The **** still takes up space on the console and the stalk function is close to how a column shifter works and seems more intuitive. Also I like how Tesla has integrated autopilot and cruise engagement in the shifter stalk in the new Model 3. When in drive press down once and adaptive cruise is turned on. Press twice and auto pilot is engaged. Simple.

moparado

That reminds me.
I once had a '72 Toyota Celica with a manual tranny. No Toyota's..... never again.
For some reason whenever i shifted from reverse into 1st gear the tranny hopelessly locked up in 1st gear.
Took it to a tranny repair place and they assured me they found and fixed the problem.

Well i had a hot date and i drove to the big city downtown to wine/dine and impress her.
Only parking available was valet parking garage, no problem.
When we were done with the wining and dining and got back to the parking garage, horror, seen my Toyota parked in a weird place. Oh Oh!
Yep the tranny was locked in 1st gear. Had to map side roads 20 miles back home all the time in 1st gear.

Finally took that dam rice burner to a Toyota dealer. Seems the factory forgot to install a detent bearing somewhere in the tranny.

marshallr

No preference. My Tacoma has the shifter in the console, the Ford on the column. I can use either, but invariably reach in the wrong place when driving one after the other. I bought my Ford used and wasn't able to pick and choose every option but the one I ended up with is the one that came closest to checking all the right boxes at the best price. Being able to seat 6 would have been nice, but there is almost no storage in the console with that option. My truck is unusual in that it has a huge console for storage, yet has the column shift. Not sure why they would do that but it is what it is.

marshallr

Not trying to pick a fight, just adding perspective. My dad was born in 1923 and started driving at age 13 before a license was needed. He could NEVER understand the appeal of modern cars having the shifter, either manual or automatic, on the floor. He once told me that when they were able to figure out how to get the shifter out of the floor and onto the column what a big deal it was. In his mind having it on the floor was outdated and moving technology backwards.

Mark Miller

I agree!!