I know this is nit, but the steering wheel seek buttons seem backwards

A very minor but constantly annoying little thing. The "seek switch", up/down arrows on the steering wheel switch (left side) seem reversed to me.
The volume, + and -, make sense, but when I press the up arrow, ^, I get the previous preset station. When I press the down arrow I get the next preset station. This sure seems ass-backward to me. The perspective is that it's a list where the top item is the first preset, to go to the next higher preset number press the down arrow.
Okay, I feel better sharing. I'm surprised the Japanese got this backwards.

 

I wish the volume was up and down, and I wish the seek buttons were left and right.

 

I've kvetched about this on the forum a few times. People turn volume Up or Down. Do you ever say, "Hey hunny, can you please turn the volume right?" Of course not. Likewise with the preset as mentioned by the OP. It should be left-to-right, where your first preset is the one farthest to the left. Just like on an old time car radio, where the station number progresses from low to high in a left-to-right manner.

This is the only car I've ever had that uses this backward arrangement.

 

What's weird is they changed this mid model, because my 19 has the seek buttons correct, and has a separate volume up / down button (that actually goes up and down) towards the bottom of the steering wheel. They didn't heed the adage of "if it's not broke...".

 

If I change the station onee more time trying to change the volume I'm prying the button out and giving it a quarter turn counterclockwise

 

LOL they actually tried this on TW (Tacos are the same buttons) and it was an epic fail. Maybe only change the volume or channel when you're in the middle of a right turn!

 

I can only guess it was set up that way due to the presets being listed top to bottom on the screen (on older models, at least). I'm just glad I got used to it before it was pointed out, because otherwise it might bug me, too.

I wonder how hard it would be to rewire the switch to make it more logical?

Lol!

I guess I'm glad the '19's had up and down arrows for the volume.

 

Some engineer that never used this told someone they should change it and boom there it is.... Happens all the time, desk jockeys telling end users what they need, sad

 

Yes! Thinking about like that all the buttons would make sense.

 

I watched a documentary on the design process for a car, I think it was BMW, and they reported on the guy who programmed the car sounds (power on, off, door open, all sorts of warnings). He had that one job and spent months obsessing over just the right sounds. Oh so german.
I always had the impression the toyota engineers obsessed over that kind of minutiae as well. Maybe time for a new button guy.

 

I’m glad I’m not alone. Ever since I purchased the 4R I’ve been wondering why and who would design it this away.
Although annoying, I can (barely) get over the volume buttons being left/right instead of up/down.
And it would make so much more sense for the change song/station to be in place of the volume buttons and vice versa.

With this out of the way, Now comes the worse. Why in the hell do I have to press the down button rather than the up button to go to the next preset (for example 3 to 4) and the up button to go down a preset (4 to 3).

 

That would make perfect sense. Volume buttons would be in the right order and ever the song/preset previous vs next would be properly put.
I legitimately wonder if they messed up and put it in the wrong position during the blueprints.
Please anyone try moving it a 1/4 turn counterclockwise and do a write up

 

My last 6 new cars were Fords, Explorers and Edges.
Then I bought a new 2020 4runner in Jan 2020.
Toyota is years behind Ford. Never again.

 

Yeah but... you would have a Ford!

 

One good thing about an aftermarket radio (like a Pioneer) and Maestro setup is that the Pioneer's presets go up and down, volume goes left to right. So the steering wheel controls actually make sense. I went this route in June 2020 on my new 4Runner.

 

kinda off-topic.

 

Yup. I feel the same way.

 

LOL.

 

100% in agreement.

One of the more frustrating things is that on the radio: Up = Previous preset

On Apple Car Play: Up = Next Song

It's not even consistent within the system.

 

Toyota doesn't care they know that there's no comparable options for us that even come close since Pathfinder s*** the bed and turned into a car. What else are we going to do? Buy a Wrangler or a bronco

 

A guy on YouTube named Brian Ruperti commented in his review of his Tacoma that Toyota totally blew this. 100% agree, it's like the Toyota designers all suffered a collective case of Dyslexia the day they laid out that switch.

 

The new Highlander steering wheel is even more fun both the radio control and the volume control are left to right lol

 

Toyota's button Man

 

Yes, and the backwards logic doesn’t necessarily carry over to the head unit controls or the screen.