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I like the setup in the BMW 7 Series I am considering. The charging tray is behind the cupholders and can be covered.
I like this setup better than having the charger exposed (I like all that stuff hidden by doors in a luxury car, I hate exposed cupholders etc) or having it under the console lid where all of my junk is going to cover the phone.
That design just looks kind of chintzy for a 100K flagship.
While I don't believe that "older is better," I do wholeheartedly agree that the zigzag (or, as I like to call it, the "7") style is a bit puzzling. If you're going to have a console-mounted shifter instead of a column-mounted one, (or better yet, a dial or pushbuttons, since they save even more space that would be otherwise wasted) I am of the school of thought that it ought to be linear. I've never understood the point of the zigzags.
Perhaps the only thing worse are the flimsy and slow joystick style. I'm all for modernizing shifters, but I like it a lot better when they're properly engineered (pushbuttons or dials are excellent examples of this: they're faster to operate and save interior space).
Last edited by Stumper; 08-26-20 at 03:59 PM.
Reason: discussion of joystick-style shifters
I personally always have liked the Lexus gated shifters. I like the positive feel through each gear, and the fact that its much harder to overshoot gears when shifting just by feel.
This has turned out to be quite an active thread....more than I expected when I started it. Seems like there are a lot of opinions here......some of them quite strongly held. Oh, well, that's Car Chat. And, yes, I myself have been b**ching about some shifter-designs for years.
I will state, though, that one of many reasons I chose an Encore GX is the conventional fore-aft shift lever....I had considered waiting for next year's all-new 2021 Envision (or maybe a Lincoln Corsair), but the new Envision is turning out to be a little larger in size than what I was looking for, and the new electronic shifter (for 2021), for me, was a (borderline) deal-breaker. Also, the Envision is built in China....I see little or no reason to aid the economy of our American economic arch-enemy. At least the Encore GX is built in Korea, one of our allies.
That doesn't mean that the Encore GX's shifter is perfect....its fore-aft throws are a little long (particularly up into Reverse and Park), and the side-rocker-switch for up/down (+/-) gear motion is easy to press inadvertantly with your thumb when you grab it. But in my book, it's head and shoulders above those push/pull buttons, rotary-dial, and zig-zags.
I still probably owe Ford or Lincoln some kind of a sale, though....they send me pre-paid debit cards each year, and I haven't bought a product from them yet....though I do recommend their products where and when I think they will met the needs of potential buyers/leasees.
Even in an AMG, there are paddle shifters lol. How hard do you need to "slam" it into drive?!
Yeah, I was just kidding. AMGs however, are indeed sometimes driven quite aggressively....or, like Lindsay Lohan (who has wrecked two of them), in a less-than-sober manner.
Speaking of paddle-shifters, one of the things I liked on my Lacrosse (much more than the joystick E-shifter itself) was the fact that when you flip the paddles (left one for downshifting, right one for upshifts), it temporarily overrides the "D" setting on the shifter and allows the shift, even in Drive mode. You don't have to use the "M" manual mode. Few vehicles today allow that.
08-26-20 | 02:17 PM
AMGs however, are indeed sometimes driven quite aggressively....or, like Lindsay Lohan (who has wrecked two of them), in a less-than-sober manner.