Cruise Control Stalk - Why No Buttons?

[CanTex]

Am I the only one in the world who doesn't like that stubby little cruise control stick behind the steering wheel? Non-intuitive, awkward to use, confusing, have to take my eyes off the road to find it and use it. And it just got pulled out of the Corolla parts bin. Is this a Lexus, or a Corolla? (I put 9,000 highway miles on my baby this summer, so I had plenty of time to learn it and use it - still a bad, cheap, annoying design.)

My Acura has very intuitive wheel-mounted buttons that "fall readily to hand", as do 90% of the other vehicles I saw at the car show at the Texas State Fair. Part of the other 10%, aside from Toyota, was the Dodge Caliber. Ouch!

At another show, a Lexus marketing person (from Chicago) came up with a mind-blowing but still wrong answer: "We didn't want to clutter up the steering wheel." Huh?

A phone call and an e-mail to Lexus got a "humor this guy and he'll go away" response.

Thoughts? How does one get through to the people that make such decisions?

[ldfreeman]

I agree and to top it off, it isn't illuminated at night!

[LexKid630]

I actually think it's pretty simple to use. Press it in to make it 'ready', pull down to turn on, pull foward to turn off. I use it daily.

[CanTex]

I actually think it's pretty simple to use. Press it in to make it 'ready', pull down to turn on, pull foward to turn off. I use it daily.

I can fully understand that, based on the very nice stable of Lexus vehicles in your family. I have had a long string of Honda and Acura vehicles, the last several of which were/are Acuras, plus rented many cars of all levels, all of which had very intuitive top-of-the-wheel buttons.

As well as fumbling to find the stick behind the wheel, I found quite often that when I went to push the stick up to Resume, I must have been pulling it towards me at the same time, thus canceling the cruise, followed by unexpected loss of speed.

Since we put on a lot of highway miles, if Lexus doesn't get this fixed, it might just be a deal-breaker the next time, considering the wide array of really good vehicles out there today and coming soon. Harsh but we want "the whole package", not something from the Corolla parts bin. Aside from that, we really, really like the vehicle and the dealership, so my complaints can be considered on the picky side to some. I'm just looking for Lexus to fix it.

[rx350guy]

I'm driving my first Lexus (08 RX 350), and I agree with 630 that it's pretty straight forward. Button on (display in instrument cluster), down set, up resume and toward you cancel...nothing to it!

I do think you're being a little picky if this is all you have to complain about on an otherwise sophisticated, beautiful and superbly engineered vehicle.

[SW03ES]

I prefer buttons too, but the Lexus/Toyota stalk is easy to use. If you're fumbling with it and unable to figure it out...I don't know what to tell you. They've been using the same stalk since they hit the market in 1990. You just have to get used to it.

As for why does Lexus use a stalk, most luxury automakers use stalks instead of buttons. Mercedes & BMW do.

[1990LS400]

As for why does Lexus use a stalk, most luxury automakers use stalks instead of buttons. Mercedes & BMW do.

I've seen the Mercedes cruise control stalk critized countless times in car reviews - google "Mercedes cruise control" and you will get an idea of the issue: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w251-r-cla...rol-switch.html But at least the current Mercedes cruise control is not dash mounted like it was on the 450SEL I had back in the 70s -- now that was really stupid.

I'm surprised that Mercedes didn't make owners go use the Comand interface and that BMW didn't make owners use I-drive to set cruise speed.

The Toyota/Lexus cruise control is definitely the best system I have used - very intuitive. Sure, I'm been using it for over 17 years on our Lexus and Toyota cars but it sure beats searching for the correct steering wheel button like I have to do on many rental cars or figure out which part of the same stalk controls cruise control, wipers or lights.

[CanTex]

Hey All

Thanks for the input, even though I don't agree that it's an intuitive design. (We had occasion to run 500 miles on my Acura this weekend just to keep it active, and rarely did I have to take my eyes off the road to see which button to push - they were right under my right thumb all the time.) You are right, though, it's the only "dark mark" on an otherwise fine automobile. And it's quite clear Toyota/Lexus intends to keep going down the same road, so my efforts in pointing out something like this are apparently for naught.

Many more years and miles to go on this baby, so I'll have to put up with the little stalk for sure.

[SW03ES]

Its just not what you're used to. Somehow I can operate the stalk without looking at it.

[LexKid630]

Its just not what you're used to. Somehow I can operate the stalk without looking at it.

I agree with this! Why do you want to have to look at it to use it? It's in the perfect place, and it's easy to turn on and off when your hand is on the right wood piece. I don't like the radio etc buttons at 9 and 3 o'clock because i never keep my hands there (odd position if you ask me). I usually keep my left hand at 11 and my right at 4. I've been driving Lexus' since 1990 and it's the same on all of them. It's perfected.

I really don't know why anyone has a problem with it; it's so simple!