The 10 Coolest Automatic Shifters

Save the manuals! It has become something of a rallying cry for car enthusiasts. And we can’t blame anyone for feeling this way about a great manual transmission. There’s an indelible sense of control that comes with operating the clutch, revving through the powerband and shifting gears just right. But a manual is not for everyone. Sometimes the manual variant of our favorite cars is simply impossible to find. But don’t worry. You can buy a car with a traditional automatic or DCT and still enjoy the way you select park, reverse, neutral and drive.

We’ve put together a list of some of the coolest (and in some cases, quirkiest) automatic shift levers ever installed in a car. It’s not all new equipment either. Some of our favorites range from a brand new Bentley to Chevrolet Camaros and Edsel Citations of yesteryear. So get in, buckle up and check out these shifters, levers, buttons and honest phone keys. We’re not kidding about the latter.

This is hardly an exhaustive list. What it is, however, is a collection of some of the coolest, quirkiest, and most remarkable ways to move a car with an automatic transmission. From modern art looks to phone buttons and cartoonish lightning rods, these are some of our favorites.

2026 Bentley Continental GT

A big ‘B’ in the fanciest GT cars

A Bentley interior is an event. Duh, right? Well, the latest 2026 Bentley Continental GT is no different. Bentley’s Grand Tourer features an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, mated to a powerful twin-turbocharged V8 and a hybrid system. But to get the heavy-duty Continental GT, you have to select the drivetrain via the GT’s prominent shifter. While some brands leave gear selection in their automatic transmission-equipped vehicles to volume knobs or minimalist switches, Bentley went the emphatically proud route. The shifter has a big ol’ “B” on it, as if to say, “Boy, I wonder how I’m going to get this thing moving.” Nevertheless, the monogrammed gear lever matches the Continental GT’s comfortable, unashamedly opulent interior and fine materials.

2026 Dodge Charger SIXPACK

Pistols At Dawn

The latest Dodge Charger has had an uphill battle. Even when the twin-turbo inline-six Dodge Charger SIXPACK made a whopping 550 horsepower, fans vilified the Charger for its lack of a HEMI V8. Yet the 2026 Dodge Charger SIXPACK channels the classic Charger of the 1960s and 1970s with a retro aesthetic and a modern take on the old-school pistol grip shifter of Mopar’s past. Even without an eight-cylinder mill, it’s hard to dislike that. Just don’t expect a wood grain finish on the pistol grip like on a classic Dodge.

2025 Porsche 911

Don’t try to shave with the gear lever of your Porsche

The 2025 Porsche 911 began the second chapter of the 992 generation line-up, and the state-of-the-art small gear lever for the eight-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission is on our list of favorites. Admittedly, the 911’s selector lever looks a bit like an electric travel shaver. Even the grippy touch surface at the top of the Porsche 911’s selector looks like it could bring your snout to a clean-shaven face. Still, like the 911’s sleek, classic look, the stubby little gear lever fits nicely into the simple, stylish interior of the 992.2 Porsche 911. While you won’t find a key next to the steering wheel in the 992.2, you will find a push-to-start button where a physical key once was.

2020 I pay Huayra

It’s all in the design

If you know or have heard of Pagani, then you know that the Italian supercar brand does not do things subtly. Everything is dramatic, breathtaking, rolling art. The same can be said of the 2020 Pagani Huayra and its gear selector. As a whole, the Huayra’s interior looks like an Art Deco fever dream of beautiful modern materials, a space-age espresso machine and the Chrysler Building. And in the middle, the Pagani has a high-gloss, almost phallic gear lever in a sealed housing. It’s really an event. And in the 2020 Power Roadster BCThe small gated selector is topped with a Porsche 917-style finished wooden knob. Bellissimo.

2019 Lamborghini Huracan

Who needs a stick?

The Lamborghini Huracán exuded more than the kind of pageantry we are all used to from the Raging Bull. It was also a sales dynamo for the company. And the interior doesn’t detract from the wild aesthetic of the Huracán’s exterior. Don’t expect a physical button, stick or lever here, though. Instead, the designers behind the 2019 Lamborghini Huracan I longed for something you could grab for something you could push. To communicate with the Huracán’s seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, the driver will have to operate a series of push buttons, à la a spaceship plucked from the pages of science fiction. And while you won’t find a third pedal in the mix, the Huracán has a set of oversized carbon fiber paddles for zipping through gears.

VolvoXC90 from 2016

A Swedish gear lever with modern skyscraper looks

Nearly a decade ago, Jeremy Clarkson said Volvo made some of the most beautiful interiors in the industry. That is purely subjective. That said, there’s one Volvo interior feature we couldn’t help but include in our list: the 2016 Volvo XC90s super modern gear lever. To use the Volvo XC90’s eight-speed automatic transmission, you need to grab the SUV’s short, stylish little gear selector. In all seriousness, the gear selector looks like it was plucked from the skyline of a modern megacity, and honestly, it works.

Audi A8 from 2012

A luxury sedan with AWD and a stylish selector

Who doesn’t love a V8-powered luxury sedan? How about a used eight-cylinder luxury four-door with standard all-wheel drive? If that describes your taste, the Audi A8 from 2012 should be on your list. Better yet, a look inside the large, comfortable Audi interior reveals the almost maritime-looking automatic gear selector, one of our favorite design features in the A8. Instead of designing a boring, upright handle, Audi designers opted for a more aesthetic approach to the accelerator pedal. The handle radiates horizontally from one upright stem. And if you find the eight-speed automatic a little too boring while driving, you can work your way through the gears in the manual shift mode. Not a bad combination for a mileage-eating V8 cruiser. Have a nice trip.

1983 Oldsmobile Hurst / Olds ‘Lightning Rods’

It’s alive!

Have you ever seen a colorful supervillain in a cartoon? That, or a film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s beloved classic ‘Frankenstein’. Well, then you know what enthusiasts are talking about when they call the shift levers in a 1983 Oldsmobile Hurst “lightning rods.” You read that right, they are selectors, plural. The factory Hurst Lightning Rod system used three gear selectors placed side by side: one for the standard riding modes, one for second gear and the outer shifter for first gear. It was marketed as a performance feature to make the G-body Oldsmobile Cutlass more attractive to fans. That said, it didn’t do much to simplify the two-lever operation of the Dual-Gate system that existed before.

1969 Chevrolet Camaro

Ready to go

In 1967, the automatic transmission-equipped Chevrolet Camaro used a fairly standard single-lever gearshift with a horizontal top handle. While this allowed drivers to drive off with the first-generation Camaro’s three-speed automatic, it wasn’t exactly flashy. However, on the 1968 Chevrolet Camaro and the wider, more aggressive 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, the small gear lever gave way to a quirky ‘horseshoe’ style shifter. You can also see where the horseshoe description comes from. They are two upright parts, connected by a horizontal part in the middle. Honestly, the thing looks like an old-school airplane throttle. Although quirky, it’s enough to earn a spot on our list.

Edsel ‘Teletouch’ from 1958

Select ‘D’ for driving

Now we come to what may be the strangest, most spectacular automatic gear selection system ever. It’s the ‘Teletouch’ system you’ll find in a 1958 Edsel car, like a Citation or Corsair. Imagine your automatic gear selector has been wrapped up and moved to a series of buttons in the center of your steering wheel. Now imagine if those buttons looked something like the metal push buttons on a telephone booth (look it up, kids). That is the Teletouch system. Unfortunately, the installation was prone to frequent errors and problems. And speaking of rare; you will only find the Teletouch system on Edsel cars from model year 1958 onwards.

Sources: Stellantis, Hagerty, Hemmings