I think that the s197, with manual shift, the armrest should have been rethought.

At times when I drive I hit the button with my right elbow and the access cover in the armrest storage flips open . . . Sucks. I know it locks and most of the time it is locked and really not use. The lock is tolerable.

But - the friggen flip cover on the drink holder is awful! I wish they had flipped the direction to open - this way my resting arm does not open it. Whenever my arm is on the rest, the cover constantly moves.

Has anyone come up with a mod for this area?

 

I completely agree. With the manual transmission, the entire middle console/armrest area is a disaster/awkward. The console itself sits up very high, along with a Roush or other retro style shift ****(round) it makes the stock short shifter even shorter. You have to lay your arm on the console the entire time to shift precisely, the only time I have missed gears, usually 2nd, is because I had my arm along the side of the console/hand angled up on to the shifter, elbow against my right hip area. I have pretty long arms so that does not help! I have also accidentally opened the back console with my elbow and noticed the cup holder should flip the opposite way as it wants to roll open all of the time. The setup is great for cars that are missing a 3rd pedal, put it in D and guzzle your mega gulp. I would imagine installing a tall shift lever would be helpful too, might look in to one as i would rather be able to just reach over grab the next gear and get my right hand back on the wheel. One of the most clever setups was in my EP3 2004 Civic Si, the manual shifter was actually on the dash/around where our radios are. You could just reach off the wheel to shift and right back on. Not saying the shifter in the Mustang should be there, but for those who enjoy spirited driving around corners, the current setup could use some tweaking. I was just thinking about the awkward setup about an hour ago while driving around. As soon as I hit 5k rpm, I forget about the console design, until I have to shift!

 

Ya agreed good luck shifting with a cup in there.

 

yeah its okay, i mean it definitely has room for improvement. I hate when my friends put their cups in my cupholder cause i cant shift for $hit. its ridiculous. Also when i try to open the console, i have to press the button multiple times. I do have issues sometimes with the cupholder opening up. Its comfortable for my liking. Asides from the cup holder position and the button inconvenience.

 

I did come up with a product that worked pretty well....but scrapped it cause I dont have the right contacts to make it go into production.

Basically it is a 1/4" thick piece of injection foam that was cut to the size of teh cup holder lid. Same material that teh 05-09 driver knee pads were made out of...had soem 3m adhesive to one side.

It would allow the driver to place thier forearm on it which would lift the elbow up high enough to NOT open the console. it allows you to still use the cup holder door becasue if you look at it, when you open the door there is a 1/4" space between the lid and the side of the console.

It worked great...but looked horrible in it's project form. So I removed it.

 

Here is how I solved the problem, No drinks in the car rule. Saves the transmission and saves me time if someone spills something.

 

Same here. And even if I DID allow drinks in the car, I'd be damned if I'd let 'em use the cup holder and disrupt my shifting.

 

I got used to it, or modified my method of dealing with it and it seems ok

when i first drove the car i thought the gas pedal was too close to the driver compared to my old 03 mustang but now im used to that too.

 

I guess I'm the odd one. I have no issues at all shifting... even with a drink in the cup holder. No problem at all.

 

And this is where the automatic has a distinct advantage. The cup holders are a non issue.

I have never had an issue with my arm popping the cover of the cup holder of the back pocket.