Too much stuff on the steering wheel?!

After looking at pictures of the 458 Interior, I find that Ferrari put too much stuff on the steering wheel of the 458. What's up with that trend?

 

The engineers hung everything they could on the steering wheel to make more space around the larger shift paddles. It was done on purpose that way.
CH

 

I think it's great. It simplifies the look of the dash and seems to put more controls right in front of you.

I give them credit for cleverness and creativity. We need more thinking outside the box.

 

looks like ferrari reinvented the wheel!

 

"Ferrari has worked out that if you change gear with paddles behind the steering wheel, then there really isn’t space back there for traditional stalks as well. They have therefore been ditched, and that sounds a good idea.

But it isn’t, because the buttons to operate the lights, the indicators and the wipers are now on the steering wheel, along with the usual knobs that start the engine and adjust the traction control system.

This doesn’t work. When you are travelling in a straight line, the left indicator button is on the left-hand side and that’s fine. But when you are going round a corner, the left indicator button is on the right. And it gets worse because at night, when a car is coming the other way, you have to fumble around to find the dimmer switch, which, if you are going round a corner at the time, is where you’d left the button for the wipers.

So, there you are, blinding oncoming drivers, with your left indicator on, turning right, and with the wipers going ten to the dozen because you turned them on accidentally while looking for the dimmer switch, and now you can’t find the button to turn them off." - Jeremy Clarkson

 

I think it's a bad idea too. I have a hard enough time remembering where the horn button is.

 

Clarkson never lets the truth get in the way of the sound of his own voice.

 

Turn signal switches off automatically when you turn the wheel to opposite direction.
You are supposed to turn the signal on before you make the change of direction ,not in the middle of it (that's what my mom does so she shouldn't drive a 458).

 

Maybe they're going after the F1 look?

 

There are functional reasons to place controls on the steering wheel however this is also a marketing exercise for Ferrari. It started with the 'Manettino' on the F430 which had a slick sounding Italian name and became the focal point for the un-initiated to be 'educated' by the owner on the various race functions the car has derrived from F1. It is fair to say that the exotic and feel good factor outweigh any real benefits here. Ferrari after all is in the market of selling cars and the wheel controls are just another perk.

 

I could've sworn there's another car that had the turn signals on the steering wheel.

Either way, I don't think this is very confusing or hard to operate. Like others have noted, you use the signals before a turn, not after one.

Perhaps it takes some time getting used to but I really can't see this being a huge inconvenience. I never was a fan of the multiple stalks anyway.

 

HaHa! Ain't that the truth... He does love to hear himself pontificate. In spite of his verbose and self serving nature, he does have a point. I think his point is better summed up by this post though:

 

I miss the steering wheel from the 360.

I overlooked just how good looking it was until they started putting controls on it in the 430. Didn't like the few controls on the steering wheel in the 430 now I really don't like it. Its not like your in a cramped F1 car without enough room to move your arms around and you need all kinds of controls right in front of your face.

There aren't even that many controls in a road car that need to be fine tuned on the fly so in order to continue to push the F1 theme they had to put what ever alse that was around on the wheel. Its almost like your "playing" or acting like you are driving an F1 car. sort of reminds me of one of those toys for babies to play with that have a little console and steering wheel so they can act like there driving. Don't get me wrong I love the car so much but that is one of my least favorite features.

I wish there was an option to have a normal steering wheel like in older Ferraris and the manettino switch and starter button located near there steering wheel, but not on it and all the other controls set up like they were before. Its just not necessary and a little over board.

 

Doesn't the Enzo have the same turn signal switches on the wheel?

 

thats it, thanks.

 

More than once I've grabbed an indicator rather than a paddle in the F430.

 

+1!! I love it too!

 

This, in essence, is one of the reason why I dislike Clarkson. It seems like whenever something new comes out (that he is not used to, or does not want to get used to) he automatically disses it and speaks garbage about it episode after episode.

It's called GETTING USED TO THINGS! How does he expect progression without wanting to learn new things. Should we do all calculus problems by hand because using a calculator is too difficult?

 

See post #7.

 

Correct me if i'm wrong, but wasn't the Enzo the first Ferrari to have a bunch of things on the steering, followed by the F430?

 

So have I, and I´ve also engaged low beam intending to downshift, so this is really a big improvement.
But what I really miss is the head light beam being foot operated, like cars used to have it in the sixties.
Now when you have nothing to do with your left foot that would be ideal to enable you to keep both hands on the wheel even in the dark. And sometimes I prefer to hold the wheel in a postion where I can´t reach the stalk to switch beam.

 

My Trans Am has a bunch of controls in the steering pad, mainly for the sound system, it didn't work very long....

We'll see if Ferrari's approach works.......

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdXsiZHprgU
About 1:08 secs in to the video.

Clarkson confirmed exactly what I was saying about all that stuff on the steering wheel.
Granted he's exaggerating for the sake of the video, but I still think too much stuff on the wheel.

 

Having had my car for over a month all I can say is that the design of the wheel is great IMHO. Every function falls easily to your fingertips and is simple to use.

 

16M wheel, California wheel, 458 wheel. Nice to have no extraneous clutter behind the wheel.
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