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The newest one GM has is really stupid. Forward and to the left for reverse, pull down for drive, and push a button for park. It's just a dumb design, and I can see a lot of older people getting confused with it.
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,044,441 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by southernnaturelover
The newest one GM has is really stupid. Forward and to the
left for reverse, pull down for drive, and push a button for park. It's just a
dumb design, and I can see a lot of older people getting confused with it.
Someone must be getting paid to come up with these stupid designs..
I always wonder if there is a 16 yr old kid designing this stuff. We have the same problem with our IT system at work. With every "upgrade" they move stuff around and you can't find it. Just about when everyone has figured it out, they change it again. Doesn't improve function at all.
Someone must be getting paid to come up with these stupid designs..
Why do they change things ? For what practical reason.
Some of us remember push button shifters on Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge.
The Edsel had buttons on steering wheel.
But all of those went away.
Now we have round dials. For what reason? Just to be different ?
I have to blame the young designers just out of college. Then the young out of college inexperienced marketing people. Then all the way to top management.
I was at a gas station at dusk - getting dark. A nice elderly lady in a brand new fancy expensive sedan rolls window down and asks me for help. She can't figure out how to turn on the headlights of this brand new car that her husband just bought for her.
That lawsuit is &^%$#@@ insane. The plaintiff thinks that the rotary knob, in use in both Jaguars and Land Rovers, for about the last 10 years is "defective"??? He ought to see the (*&^%$#@!!!#$%) abortion of a shifter my 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee has!
There have been Jaguars, with that shifter, in my family for over 10 years, and we've never had any issues. But had I had some time, other than a short test drive, in the Jeep before I bought it, I NEVER would have bought it.
Furthermore, what far too many people, in this day and age, fail to understand, is that driving a vehicle takes attention and concentration. You can't effectively drive, while yakking on a phone, disciplining your children, putting on your make-up, shaving, or gulping down your latte. And secondly, as the controls of most cars have gone electronic, the old fashioned, column mounted gear shift, that actually was mechanically attached to the transmission, is now a relic of the past. (and believe me, I'm NOT saying it was a change for the better)
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,044,441 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by leadfoot4
That lawsuit is &^%$#@@ insane. The plaintiff thinks that the rotary
knob, in use in both Jaguars and Land Rovers, for about the last
10 years is "defective"??? He ought to see the (*&^%$#@!!!#$%)
abortion of a shifter my 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee has!
There have been Jaguars, with that shifter, in my family for over 10
years, and we've never had any issues. But had I had some time, other
than a short test drive, in the Jeep before I bought it, I NEVER would
have bought it.
Furthermore, what far too many people, in this day and age, fail to understand,
is that driving a vehicle takes attention and concentration. You can't effectively
drive, while yakking on a phone, disciplining your children, putting on your
make-up, shaving, or gulping down your latte. And secondly, as the controls
of most cars have gone electronic, the old fashioned, column mounted gear
shift, that actually was mechanically attached to the transmission, is now a
relic of the past. (and believe me, I'm NOT saying it was a change for the
better)
Well that said, I guess the only way to fight it is to buy older vehicles with relatively low mileage for their age. Why do you think I went with a 2010 Honda, 72,000mi/110,000km earlier this year? I got fed up with all the electric-this, electronic-that BS on more recent cars I've driven and owned.
I was taught to always put the parking brake on before shifting to park (or neutral). That way things like this don't happen.
No excuse for a poor shifter design, but could save a life.
Heck you can't even get a manual parking brake anymore unless it's a bare bones car. My Volt has a button, and I can never remember if I'm supposed to push it or pull it. I usually get it backwards.
I'd say it's 80% user error and 20% bad design. Even with the standard gear shifters, plenty of people have absentmindedly exited a moving vehicle while so self-absorbed in their own world they're oblivious to the fact that they're exiting a moving vehicle. Usually what happens is just a fender bender. Car rolls into another car or a building, but yeah, it's a moving car and can also cause some very serious bodily injury. Bad design might make it easier to commit user error but you'll never have any design that prevents it entirely. Stuff like Jeep/Chrysler shifters where there's not firm engagement so people often think they've got it in park when it's really not would be an example of bad design. No idea how Jaguars are. My car uses a push button for park which is really simple to operate. You push the button. If the light turns on on the button and the dashboard tells you it's in park, then it's in park. The shifter is more of a digital joystick so you can't rely on that to visually tell you what gear you're in. You have to look at the dashboard and the LED on the park button.
It's different. If you're used to the normal automatic where park is up at the top, reverse, neutral, drive, high/low at the bottom, that's not how my car operates or most newer cars operate. You can't just rely on looking on position of the gear selector to tell you're in park because it's in the same position it is for drive and reverse and neutral. Nor do you have to put the gear into park to turn off the engine. A lot of newer cars are that way. They do things for you. If you turn off the engine, they'll just put the car in neutral and then when you open the door put it in park. Again, different. If you're used to a normal key where the ignition switch is locked and won't let you turn the car off until you put it in park, well, that's not how most new cars operate anymore. They have push button start. But again, it's not like people didn't just leave their cars running in drive with key in the ignition and the old school shifter in drive.
I've got to say, that's one of my favorite features on new cars. I used to make fun of people who were too lazy to take their keys out of their pocket, unlock their door, put the key in the ignition, start the car. I mean come on, how lazy are you that that's too much work for you. After having SKS I've got to say if I could go back and do it over again, I would have paid the extra $2,000 for SKS on the passenger and trunk instead of just the driver's door. Trunk mostly. I'm really that lazy and it annoys me now that I have to reach in my pocket to unlock the trunk.
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