Gear stick in the context of Peugeot 206

The center console (American English) or centre console in an automobile consists of the control-bearing surfaces in the center of the front of the vehicle interior. The term is applied to the area beginning in the dashboard and continuing beneath it, and often merging with the transmission tunnel which runs between the front driver's and passenger's seats of many vehicles.

Traditionally, vehicles with a gear stick have placed this control where the two areas of console and tunnel merge, or at the rear-most end of the console in front-wheel-drive vehicles without transmission tunnels. In some modern vehicles – particularly vans – the gear stick is mounted in the front, more vertical part of the center console to be within better reach of the driver without requiring a long stalk mounted on the steering column.

A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system where gear changes require the driver to manually select the gears by operating a gear stick and clutch (which is usually a foot pedal for cars or a hand lever for motorcycles).

Early automobiles used sliding-mesh manual transmissions with up to three forward gear ratios. Since the 1950s, constant-mesh manual transmissions have become increasingly commonplace, and the number of forward ratios has increased to 5-speed and 6-speed manual transmissions for current vehicles.

A parking pawl is a device fitted to a motor vehicle's automatic transmission that locks up the transmission when the transmission shift lever selector is placed in the Park position. "Park" is the first position of the lever (topmost on a column shift, frontmost on a floor shift) in all cars sold in the United States since 1965 (when the order was standardised by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)) through SAE J915, and in most other vehicles worldwide.