[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Aditya

So, what are the control you feel are must-haves on the spokes of the steering wheel of your car?

I would like the following (reading steering spokes strictly and assuming it doesn’t include the stalks behind it etc):

- Music volume;
- Call accept / reject;
- Cruise control and Speed limiter set

* (selected “Others” for speed limited although I assume if cruise control is on steering it goes hand in hand with speed limiter button).

My Mercedes has a lot of MID controls as well on the steering which are ok to have but not essential, insofar as my BMW has some of these on a stalk behind the steering and that’s fine with me too, probably better perhap. But the above listed ones are the key ones I must have on the steering column.

Ideally, I’d also like these to be tactile and not touch based and there is such a thing as there being too much available on the steering and cluttering it. One can get used to it but just making the point that car makers should find that balance between essential and not too many.

[MC@1986]

For me it's really convenient to have the necessary switch gear on the Steering Wheel. As mentioned in this post, I really like the Steering Wheel of my Ford Ecosport for which I got the Cruise Control switch gear added later. It is a boon to have this inclusion for the Highways.

Off late, I found the Hilux's Steering Wheel also pretty nice and functional. What I feel was a miss are the Paddle Shifters which is available in Fortuner.

Attaching pictures from TBhp official reviews for ready reference:

[thomahawk]

I drive an EV (Tiago); I wish it had the paddles for adjusting regen and perhaps a red button to toggle between sport and drive modes for that NOS feeling .

For me infotainment and call controls are a must. The right side (MID controls, cruise control) are all optional for me since I hardly drive on highways.

[Chisels121]

It's either nothing or just audio controls for me. In our Duster, Renault placed the audio controls behind the steering and not on the steering! which is true for their international models as well. It just makes me mad to no end and I just use the infotainment screen directly while driving using the volume slider and muscle memory of the icon for track change

[B-Taurus]

A lot of them are complaining about the small horn button, I find that hard to digest. Are we still using the horn? I hardly use the horn and I don’t see any reason to use it…. Unless there’s cattle on the road which refuses to move, for that the existing “small” button is sufficient.
So Vinya_jag I’m with you, the world should indeed change towards a much more silent place, there’s enough noise already😊
Also who cares for horn in the cities nowadays?

As for the buttons on the steering I love my XL6 layout, just that I don’t really require the cruise control buttons, it’s used only on the highway and could’ve been on a separate stalk. The phone controls below the steering is a lovely design.

[nri2ri]

I love my XL6 steering wheel a lot more than my recently purchased Hycross VXOs steering wheel. One of those occassions where the button feel and the overall finish feel truly superior over a nearly 3x priced car.

Originally Posted by Miel

Which is India's current "National Steering Wheel" ???

- That was the topic of discussion among me and my pals last afternoon at a local chai point.

I, for one, love the flat-bottom with thumb-contours steering wheel of my XL6 and the Swift. And it turns out that this steering wheel layout, with same control layout and configurations, is India's "top selling" (kinda) steering wheel. Get this - across the Swift, Ertiga, Baleno, Dzire, Brezza, Fronx, Grand Vitara, XL6, Rumion, Hyryder, and Glanza - this unit got into the hands of a whopping 1.10 Lakh new car owners last month alone!

Attachment 2645986

It has 2 versions. One is the the flat-bottom with thumb-contours version on all, except the Brezza, Grand Vitara/Hyryder, and Jimny. The latter cars get the non-flat-bottom, non-thumb-contours version. The controls layout are the same across both.

I love everything about it, except the painful fact that the horn pad is only in the center and I can't simply reach with my thumb to honk. Have to resort to wrist-forearm acrobatics or dedicatedly depute a palm to honk. Though many dislike this dated design, for me simple stuff like having the telephony controls off the face of the steering, but just below on a ledge, ensure I don't accidentally press call in heavy traffic turns.

[r0rshack]

Infotainment and telephone controls were one of the items on my must-have features while shortlisting our Baleno. I don't mind having cruise control as well, the altroz had it, but hardly used it.

Loved the steering wheel on the altroz/tiago/prev gen Nexon as well. Just took a while getting used to the center-only horn pad on the baleno, while the altroz had them both on the sides and center.

[rajushank84]

I use volume controls and display mode regularly. Display mode to switch between seeing tire pressures vs driving info like kmpl, range, etc.

The paddle shifters and call accept/decline buttons get rare use.

Aside from this, everything else goes untouched. I don't use voice commands, cruise control and the rest of it.