So Jaguar Land Rover has decided to do some more part sharing – the new XJ got the Range Rover cup holders, albeit with some fancier chrome & the 2011 Range Rover received the JaguarDrive Selector – I’m not sure what Land Rover marketing is calling it yet.

Jaguar describes it as:

A rotary shift interface that combines precise, intuitive control with leading edge ergonomics and interior design

It was designed with some possible Apple collaboration, as per Autoblog & Ian Callum

I describe it as more of a gimmick, did they just want to stop buying BMW gear shifts?  The classic Jaguar J-Gate was completely retired in 2010/11 and this is another unique Jaguar take on a gear shift.  For Land Rover though, it seems like more of an afterthought, giving the aging Range Rover interior another update.  And in doing so, they’ve reset some of their recent Land Rover design DNA.  I guess they couldn’t have two larger round knobs so close together so Terrain Response has now become a right/left toggle button.  On one of my off-road drives at the Solihull factory and my first time with Terrain Response – the Land Rover instructor actually made a point to say, while explaining how easy Terrain Response was to operate, that when you need to go back to regular mode, all you had to do was give the knob a good counter-clockwise spin and you were back.  How  does that work now?  Can you hold down the “left” button and it will cycle through and get you back to normal?  Or if you were in Rock Crawl mode, do you have to hit the “left” button 4 times to get to normal?  With the pre-2011 knob, you didn’t even have to look.  We’ll have to keep an eye out for the 2011 Owner’s Manuals to be released.

And then there’s the actual physical design of the knob – that great Bentley-esque knurling.  I really like the look & the feel should be great too, but does it match anything else in the vehicle?  The old Terrain Response knob had what they called the Noble finish with rubber notches – just like most of the other round controls in the Range Rover.  It was like a larger version of the current HVAC controls.  I’m not saying the shift knob should have been rubberized, but maybe they should have brought the knurled design to the other controls.  This was just a straight lift from the XJ part bin, a great bin, just wish they would have taken more.

And I’ll finish by contradicting myself and say it is pretty cool and I look forward to giving it a try.