The return of the car stereo tuning knob

In recent years, dashboard touch screens and center-console unified “multifunction” control knobs have become all the rage. Which in many cases means a fashion trend that infuriates practically everyone. Want to tune a radio station or find the seat heater in a brand-new car? Figure on knob-jogging or finger-poking your way through up to five separate steps.

Based on what we saw at the New York auto show, it looks like the tide may be turning. More and more new cars have restored or bravely retained a discrete radio-tuning knob and other physical buttons to activate commonly used audio, climate, and other must-have functions. Glancing around at some very new cars, we were struck by the sensible simplicity of the manual audio controls in the 2015 Hyundai Sonata, one of several new vehicles with a rotary radio-tuning knob located where it should be, to the lower right of the display screen. Others current notables include the Mazda CX-9, Nissan Rogue, Subaru Legacy, Toyota Highlander, and Volkswagen Passat. Chevrolet has used fairly simple, intuitive controls for several years.

Many systems that use menu screens, either touch-based or knob-activated, impose a delay after you start the engine while the system initializes. Do I need to see a Ford logo or Acura ELS audio screen for 10 seconds or so? I know I bought a Ford or an Acura, thank you. So before you can see where the radio is set, for instance, you have to stare at an electronic logo or legal disclaimer for a few seconds. In some cases, at least, you can usually turn on the seat and steering wheel heaters via traditional physical buttons while you’re waiting.

Who hasn’t got the message yet? Many of the laggards are some pretty high-end cars, such as those from Cadillac, Jaguar, and Land Rover. Mainstream offenders include Honda and many Fords. At least Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz let you use their controller as a tuning knob either through stations with good receptions or as an old fashion knob.

It could be argued that BMW started this whole unified-control revolution with its notorious iDrive system back in 2002. About every year since then they’ve tried to undo the damage they caused, even as most other luxury brands followed them over the cliff. Many iterations of iDrive later, it’s now almost simple to use compared to newfangled systems from competitors. Although it can be frustrating to the uninitiated, once the iDrive logic is grasped, it’s doable. It facilitates several shortcuts through steering wheel mounted thumbwheels which helps. Recent BMWs, provide some actual, physical, station buttons that could be programmed for radio presets. The center knob can be used as a rotary tuning knob if you find the right menu and choose Manual which takes some digging.

As for MyFordTouch and the Cadillac CUE system, we’ve almost run through our ink budget denouncing their inherent user-unfriendliness. To be truly comfortable with those systems, you really ought to have joint degrees from MIT and the Juilliard School of Music. The first will give you the technical know-how to understand the menu structures, while the latter will help you develop the finger dexterity required to locate the right touch buttons. (Read: "5 things to look for in a car infotainment system.")

It’s true that Ford has made numerous attempts to improve on the initial MyFordTouch design, but like BMW, they haven’t yet made a good system but just made a bad system less bad. Cadillac’s CUE still seems to be behind the eight-ball, as it were. Besides being clumsy, slow, and complicated, it brings other vexations. At least with our CTS sedan, for instance, when you shift into reverse the radio volume cuts out. You’ve got to be rolling forward again before you get the sound back.

Despite those specific discontents, it looks like the car industry as a whole is actually thinking about user-friendliness again. With luck, we’ll soon have cars whose creature comforts are as easy to understand as they were 25 years ago. Perhaps Apple’s CarPlay will be the answer, but based on our initial experience, even that isn’t a slam dunk.

—Gordon Hard

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