2025 Upgraders: Do You Miss The Dial Shifter?

[BlackOnGray]

The button click to park is weird though. I double check before releasing off the brake.

Sponsored

 

[E90alex]

Except it’s not even that intuitive (I don’t think). My understanding is that you signal a left turn to go reverse and a right turn to go forward.

As with anything, it becomes second nature once you get used to it. Mercedes has used a similar shifter for decades. And then Tesla stole it (until recently with the shifter on the screen BS). It’s the easiest automatic shifter setup I’ve used in any car.

The all in one turn signal stalk has also been used for decades in the F-series trucks and corresponding SUVs.

People just hate change. If the MME came out in 2021 with the column shifter and “super stalk” on the left, no one would have cared. Or if this was a whole new generation MME. People only care now because they changed it mid model cycle so anyone upgrading to a 2025 has to reconfigure their brain even though it’s the “same” car.

It’s a complete non-issue for anyone new to the MME. You just have to learn it like you learn how to use any new car.

 

[txaggies07]

The new column shifter should be much easier and faster to use without looking compared to the dial. Push all the way down for drive, all the way up for reverse. Don’t need to look at anything. Don’t need to take your hand off the wheel. Don’t need to count clicks to hit reverse from drive without accidentally going to park.

If you need to look to use the rotary dial....holy hell.

 

[ChrisO]

Your 12v battery dies with a child inside the car and you can’t open it is ones of the how it can in a very rare scenario become a safety issue.

In an emergency situation you break the windows. But on top of that I don't see how you have a child inside the car with you outside of it with the doors closed and the battery just died. This is with a kid that can't get out of their seat and open the driver or front passenger door.

There is always going to be outliner cases where the doors can't be opened.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

People like to whine. Glad to see that we are past the frunk button, 5-sec limit, hvbjb, adapter, 12-v battery, I didn’t get the xx.yy update, etc. etc. Luckily, we found a host of other topics to whine to the manager about.

What a bunch of Karens.

 

[Bonehead]

Here's the biggest problem I found in transitioning a week ago from the rotary dial to the stalk: muscle memory. I keep reaching down for the phantom dial!

 

[Sikkun]

In an emergency situation you break the windows. But on top of that I don't see how you have a child inside the car with you outside of it with the doors closed and the battery just died. This is with a kid that can't get out of their seat and open the driver or front passenger door.

There is always going to be outliner cases where the doors can't be opened.

Im sure you can come up with a way where you:

1. Don’t have something to break the window.
2. Spending a couple grand to fix windows isn’t desirable.

But you can not imagine it, the situation has happened so there we have it.

 

[highland58]

The stalk shifter works fine for me. push up for R and down for D, push the button on the end for P.

 

[that_macheguy]

I wish I could get this installed in my 2024. Someone find a way please and thanks!

 

[profdraper]

I'm planning on getting a 2025 Rally once my current lease is up.
In my current 2023, any time I want "DRIVE" I just spin the wheel right without even looking knowing it will land on D.

I'm assuming the new drive stalk is even easier, since I'll just tap it down without looking, but curious to hear some experiences. I'm lazy of course, so the requirement to look at anything when shifting is a concern.

The very annoying problem with the dial shifter (what were they thinking?) is that unlike many cars, the rather useless L is placed in the centre instead of the conventional P. At either end of the dial throw then, there is D at one end and idiot P at the other end instead of R.

This means that when (say) doing a three point turn, I cannot simply flick between one end of the dial & the other without needing to look down. Otherwise the car slams into P & makes an awful noise and shudder. Bad design.

The drive stalk looks much better in this respect & the useless L is gone, surely most use 1PD anyway.

 

[Mach1E]

The very annoying problem with the dial shifter (what were they thinking?) is that unlike many cars, the rather useless L is placed in the centre instead of the conventional P. At either end of the dial throw then, there is D at one end and idiot P at the other end instead of R.

This means that when (say) doing a three point turn, I cannot simply flick between one end of the dial & the other without needing to look down. Otherwise the car slams into P & makes an awful noise and shudder. Bad design.

The drive stalk looks much better in this respect & the useless L is gone, surely most use 1PD anyway.

Pros and cons for sure.

But L isn’t useless, especially for us 2 pedal drivers. Plenty of threads on it, but there are a lot of people who prefer 2 pedal.

The real question is: WHY? What problem does this solve and why do they keep removing features?

Seems like they’ve removed a ton of stuff based on this same “what most people use” concept.

Most people don’t use the frunk? Shrink it.
Most people don’t use L? Remove it
Most People don’t kick to open? Remove it
Most people don’t use the self parking? Remove it.

The list goes on

 

[E90alex]

Pros and cons for sure.

But L isn’t useless, especially for us 2 pedal drivers. Plenty of threads on it, but there are a lot of people who prefer 2 pedal.

The real question is: WHY? What problem does this solve and why do they keep removing features?

Seems like they’ve removed a ton of stuff based on this same “what most people use” concept.

Most people don’t use the frunk? Shrink it.
Most people don’t use L? Remove it
Most People don’t kick to open? Remove it
Most people don’t use the self parking? Remove it.

The list goes on

The frunk shrunk because of the heat pump.

The L button was just vestigial from the parts bin dial shifter. Doesn’t really make sense to have that function in an EV.

Kick to open and self parking was a combination of COVID supply chain chip shortages which have them an easy out for some cost cutting.

Not sure what the motivation was for moving to the column shifter as it’s a new part not used in any other FoMoCo vehicle as far as I know, so it wasn’t for cost savings. Maybe trying to capitalize on people ditching Teslas and making it more familiar for them.

 

[Jimrpa]

The frunk shrunk because of the heat pump.

The L button was just vestigial from the parts bin dial shifter. Doesn’t really make sense to have that function in an EV.

Kick to open and self parking was a combination of COVID supply chain chip shortages which have them an easy out for some cost cutting.

Not sure what the motivation was for moving to the column shifter as it’s a new part not used in any other FoMoCo vehicle as far as I know, so it wasn’t for cost savings. Maybe trying to capitalize on people ditching Teslas and making it more familiar for them.

Correction: the frunk shrunk because of lazy packaging/engineering when they went to the 2 ton carrier heat pump. Rivian, Lucid, and Tesla somehow managed to figure out how to put in heat pumps and maintain real frunks.

 

[Mach1E]

The frunk shrunk because of the heat pump.

The L button was just vestigial from the parts bin dial shifter. Doesn’t really make sense to have that function in an EV.

Kick to open and self parking was a combination of COVID supply chain chip shortages which have them an easy out for some cost cutting.

Not sure what the motivation was for moving to the column shifter as it’s a new part not used in any other FoMoCo vehicle as far as I know, so it wasn’t for cost savings. Maybe trying to capitalize on people ditching Teslas and making it more familiar for them.

For 2 pedal drivers the L functions the same as L in a gas car. Going downhill and don’t want to ride the brake? Hit the L.

Plenty of people even drive on L all the time. For those of us with mag ride it’s a nice combo of softer suspension and steering with maximum regen.

Sure, not everyone uses it, but it’s nice for those of us to who.

Personally I hate 1PD and never use it, but I wouldn’t suggest they get rid of it because plenty of others do use it.

FWIW, Ford engineers were quoted as saying most people didn’t use the frunk so they didn’t think shrinking it would matter.

There also aren’t any chip shortages anymore.

They always have a good excuse for their “shrinkage,” but it still is what it is: removed features and capabilities.

 

[StevenC56]

Has it been confirmed that the 25 models have no "L" range or mode that increases the regen braking like the previous rotary shifter models?

Sponsored