Should GM Maintain the Column Shifter on Next Gen?

FishinJ · August 8, 2016

Column shifter for me. Fords console shifter takes up too much valuable real estate. Don't care either way about push button start but keep the remote start.

Daryl LBZ · August 8, 2016

Column...and keep the keyed ignition.

Agreed. I don't want to have to deal with a problem child junky push button ignition system when I eventually buy one of these trucks used down the road.

OldBlue61 · August 8, 2016

I vote column shift. Ram's twist knob just doesn't cut it for me. I hated it in my rental.

truckguy82 · August 9, 2016

Column shifter and push button start. How it starts is at the bottom my list of priorities though.

There is no practical reason at all to prefer a keyed start, it has no advantages other than being the old way of doing things.

f8l vnm · August 9, 2016

I say go with column still but make the shifter shorter. Like on the benzes etc.

mookdoc6 · August 9, 2016

I say go with column still but make the shifter shorter. Like on the benzes etc.

That's the ticket.......little shorter and boom! No way I see the Ram's keeping the dashboard knob! A Guy I work with is already saying nope it sucks!

Edited August 9, 2016 by mookdoc6

austingta · August 12, 2016

I had a 2015 F150 Lariat until a month ago. I am surprised to see that I am the first one to say that I really liked the floor shifter. It was a very comfortable place to rest my hand while underway. Intelligent entry and keyless ignition were great, for me, too.

The F150 had plenty of console storage for me, and I'm a contractor who drives from jobsite to jobsite all day.

cracked_up · August 31, 2016

Colum Shift or console shift if it's comfortable. I like the push button start and leaving the key in my pocket as well as auto entry, put this on the tailgate also.

TenofMe · September 24, 2016

Column shift is fine, I like the open console area free from driver controls.

Keyless (proximity) entry and push button start would be nice. I hate my keys banging around on the column.

P-Funk · September 26, 2016

Column shift and keyless entry with push button start get my vote.

Thomcat · September 27, 2016

Despite how you glitz it up the basic vehicle design is a truck; and the basic truck is meant to do work.

So what, the farmer, plumber, electrician, roofer etc. who is trying to eek out a living is forced to spend extra bucks on a double or crew cab to transport his two helpers or fit his wife and child because he can't fit them into a basic cab due to a console taking up the third seating position?

The manufacturers have it right, keep the basic standard column shift and key start for those who need it or want it, and let those who want all the extra interior crap including keyless entry pay for it as an option.

And keyless entry and using electronics to simplify steering column architecture is fine, but I'll wager half the owners have no idea how to get into or start the vehicle once the battery goes dead in the keyfob. My neighbor was driving around with no idea that there is a hidden laser key in her fob, and the hidden access in the door handle for mechanical entry and that once inside you have to insert it into the special reader well to get the vehicle to recognize the dead keyfob.

CadillacLuke24 · October 24, 2016

Keep it exactly the way it is. Column shift makes for the epic center console, and it feels like I'm in a truck, not a car.

And keep the key. Push button just seems too insecure. That and keys are awesome.

Edited October 24, 2016 by CadillacLuke24

GPGuy · November 20, 2016

Column shift and key here too. I could live with a floor shift but please don't give us that knob shifter..

mookdoc6 · November 21, 2016

Yup, the knob or dial or whatever the idiots come up with and it would kill it for me.....Gosh, I get in my wife's car and I am constantly grabbing the air behind her steering wheel looking for a column shifter to back the damn car up? I can't do a knob, no way!

MikeNH · November 21, 2016

I've driven all of them and prefer the column shift but any of them work just fine. The console shifter is IMO a waste of space and too car like and while Ram's knob is weird, you get used to it after a day or two. I'd take it and Ram's nice center console over a Ford with a console shifter wasting all that space.