Changing Gears: Cars Ditch Familiar Shift Levers.

VIDEO . The shift lever – a device familiar to generations of car buyers – is undergoing a rapid evolution of the sort rare in nature, but increasingly common in the automotive world. Joe White reports. Photo: Lamborghini.

The 2013 Ram 1500 SLT is a beefy pickup with a 305-horsepower engine, a cab that stands more than 6 feet tall and a bed that can carry more than 1,400 pounds of stuff.

To put this big rig into the first of its eight forward gears, you don't grab some industrial-strength steel shift lever. You use two fingers to twist a plastic knob on the dashboard clockwise, from P to D.

The Tesla Model S uses a diminutive shift lever on the right side of the steering column that's similar to a design used in many German luxury cars .

The shift lever—a device familiar to generations of car buyers—is undergoing a rapid evolution. Some car companies—but not all—are replacing traditional gear shifters in automatic-transmission vehicles with knobs, push buttons or small levers, freeing up precious real estate in vehicle cabins for extra storage bins, smartphone cradles, bigger cupholders or multimedia controllers. The new, lightweight controls do the job because automotive engineers are increasingly getting rid of the nuts, bolts and cables that once were connected to the gear box and instead are designing transmissions that use electronic circuits, switches and relays to control gear shifts.

Chrysler chief designer Ralph Gilles said designers for the Ram and other Chrysler models that are ditching shift levers experimented with several approaches before settling on the Ram's "rotary e-shift" design.

"We spent more time on that knob than any knob I've worked on," Mr. Gilles says. Among the details: How to calibrate the catch points, or detents in engineering-speak, that signal a driver who's not looking at the knob when it's clicked past reverse or neutral.

The Range Rover Evoque's gear shift is a knob that extends from the center console when the sport utility starts up.

The Ram's rotary shifter has garnered praise from some participants in online discussions. But there are dissenters.

Shane Konzuk, 44 years old, says he special-ordered a 2013 Ram pickup with a six-speed transmission to avoid the rotary-shift feature. Mr. Konzuk, who lives in Edmonton, Alberta, and uses his truck for work, says the new eight-speed transmission is "smooth as silk." But he couldn't accept the dial. "It's too weird."

Some new cars that aim to project a technology-forward image, such as General Motors Co.'s GM +1.94% plug-in hybrid Cadillac ELR, still come with chunky shift levers positioned close to the driver's right hand, reflecting in Cadillac's case a judgment that drivers will get more enjoyment from intuitive, familiar controls

The Lincoln MKZ sedan puts a modern spin on a vintage idea: push-button shifters, last seen in the U.S. in the early 1960s.

KBB.com asked visitors to its car-shopping website last week what sort of shifter they preferred. Of the 229 who responded, 60% said they liked a shift lever in the console, and another 15% said they preferred a traditional shift lever on the steering column.

Jaguar Land Rover PLC, has outfitted its latest XJ sedans with a shift knob that automatically rises out of the console between the front seats to greet the driver with what the company calls a "handshake." The new Jaguar shifter, and a similar rotary knob design offered on Land Rover's Range Rover Evoque model, are mated to a new eight-speed automatic transmission made by ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Zed-F, as the company is known, also makes the eight-speed in the Dodge Ram.

German luxury-car makers Mercedes-Benz and BMW BMW.XE -1.90% have replaced console shift levers on some of their models with small levers on the steering column that respond to the flick of a finger. The designs free up space in center consoles for storage space and controllers that operate multimedia systems.

Ford Motor Co.'s F +1.31% Lincoln luxury brand has revived and updated the concept of push-button gear selection, last seen in the U.S. in the early 1960s. The Lincoln system is designed to give the interior of the brand's 2013 MKZ midsize sedan a different look from its mechanical sibling, the Ford Fusion.

The Fusion driver changes gears using a conventional, console-mounted shift lever. The MKZ owner will punch buttons for park, reverse, neutral or drive that are aligned vertically on the dashboard to the driver's right.

The push-button design "is earmarked for Lincoln only," says Gary Braddock, interior chief designer for Ford and Lincoln vehicles. Using the buttons allowed the MKZ's designers to put more storage space between the front seats.

Rotary dials and buttons kill the romance of slamming a car through quick, high-speed gear changes. But few drivers do that anymore. Even some of the most aggressively sporty cars on the market are abandoning stick-style shifters. The new Lamborghini Aventador and Veneno super cars offer their drivers paddles on the left and right sides of the steering wheel to change gears—although the car will shift itself automatically.

Auto makers have leeway under federal safety rules to experiment with shift-selector designs. The basic gear order must be Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and a low gear, usually designated with an L. The movement to Drive from Neutral must be a clockwise motion on a column mounted shifter. The standards don't mention dials or paddles.

Jake Fisher, head of automotive testing for Consumer Reports magazine, says the newfangled designs can present problems for drivers. Consumer Reports vehicle testers, who are in and out of a variety of vehicles during a year, would sometimes accidentally shift cars into neutral when they intended to turn on the windshield wipers because they mistook downsized shift levers for wiper-control stalks, Mr. Fisher says.

Car makers have taken steps to avoid potentially hazardous mistakes. Mercedes-Benz, for example, has programmed cars to stop and go into Park when the door is opened, no matter whether the driver has correctly engaged the Park button used on certain shifter stalks.

As for rotary dials and buttons, Mr. Fisher says they make it harder to do maneuvers like parallel parking or a K-turn that require rapid and repeated shifts.

"There's all types of new ways of making simple things complicated," he says.