Rental car this week, Hyundai Sonata, has a little stubby column "shifter" that just twists back and forth. Nearly as dumb as some of the dash mounted push buttons or levers like Lincoln and anything else with a mini-van-ish sloped dash. Only saving grace is it self parks when you push the ignition button.
Personally, I wouldn't really have a problem with the current knob setup, have used it on some rentals and it does just fine. I would miss the tactile feedback from the leather column shift knob...