Ford Maverick Is Almost The Perfect Truck, But One Part Of It Really Sucks

Do people really hate the dial shifter that much? I don’t mind it at all.

It took me all of 30 seconds to get used to. The drive mode not being remembered when you restart the car is a bigger annoyance to me.

Zinnia said:
It took me all of 30 seconds to get used to. The drive mode not being remembered when you restart the car is a bigger annoyance to me.

I use it mainly on highway driving with adaptive cruise. It helps avoid the problem of the truck aggressively accelerating when a slower driver moves out of the way.

@Soren
Haha, I know exactly what you mean. There’s no chill in how quickly it speeds back up to the set speed and no chill in how it slows down when someone gets in front of you.

@Soren
I’ll have to play with that more. Thanks for the tip!

Zinnia said:
It took me all of 30 seconds to get used to. The drive mode not being remembered when you restart the car is a bigger annoyance to me.

Eco mode doesn’t increase MPG by itself, but it changes how the car responds to throttle inputs. It makes it easier to drive smoothly and stay in electric mode longer, which helps efficiency. I also like that it increases regenerative braking without needing to tap the brake.

@Eli
Eco mode also makes cruise control more forgiving—it won’t drop out of electric mode just to get back to set speed.

Foregoing the comfort aspect, I just discovered it’s a safety issue. On a long Alaska road trip, an item fell from the passenger seat onto the dial, shifting my car from Drive into Neutral. The sudden loss of momentum made me press the gas, but nothing happened. I’m just glad it didn’t shift into Reverse.

@Uma
Pretty much every car with a dial shifter has a reverse lockout, so you wouldn’t have been able to accidentally shift into Reverse at speed.

@Uma
My dog once stepped on it and put me into Neutral in a drive-thru. I had no idea until I tried to take off. I’ve since moved my pup to the back seat.

It’s still not my preference, but it’s a minor issue on an otherwise great vehicle.

Maxwell said:
It’s still not my preference, but it’s a minor issue on an otherwise great vehicle.

Yeah, I don’t like it either, but I got used to it in about two days.

I’m used to resting my hand on the shifter—still haven’t gotten used to the dial.

Oh, agreed. I can’t believe Ford didn’t think about saving drive mode settings. How hard would it be for them to push a firmware update? I’d even pay for that.

I’ve always had a normal shifter, but the rotary dial is a space saver and I like it.

Miko said:
I’ve always had a normal shifter, but the rotary dial is a space saver and I like it.

Exactly! It frees up a whole extra storage cubby. Since everything is shift-by-wire now, why waste space with a big lever connected to nothing?

I hate it. A regular shifter is way more intuitive.

Payne said:
I hate it. A regular shifter is way more intuitive.

I agree. There’s not enough tactile feedback, and the placement makes it awkward to see at a glance. I wouldn’t mind it as much if it had better detents between gears.

Also, by the way, the post title is the article headline, not my personal opinion lol.

I actually love the dial. It takes up less space, and it’s easy to see what gear you’re in. A traditional PRNDL shifter just looks outdated and takes up unnecessary room.