Not sure how to hack it but if your right hand is on the CK then use your left fingers to adjust the volume on the wheel

 

Rather than volume, I'd love to have seek buttons on it. I don't mind the wheel for volume because I drive with my left hand, but it's a pain to use my right hand to seek when it's most comfortable resting on the commander.

I've thought about splicing into the wires but it's such a tedious project that I haven't bothered looking into it much.

I would assume that you could just splice into the wires for the volume control and run the controls off of that, then you'd have to get extra commander buttons to fill the blank spots (unless you want to get rid of two of the current ones and not be able to use them.

Those blank spots are slightly smaller than the others, so even if you got extra buttons somehow, you'd have to shave them down to fit. And that's all speculating that there's something to mount them on underneath those dummy buttons.

 

If the black round matte top of the CK would be tactile to the touch...as a mouse pad, to me it would be perfect.

 

I'm totally with you - I think they "learned" this - the Mazda 3's version has the similar Commander switch and then a separate dedicated rotary volume knob located to the upper right of the Commander switch.....

 

Uh, we can control volume though the steering wheel. So I'm OK without having it on the comander knob.

 

I guess I'm actually looking more for a mute button - a rotary knob would let me turn down the volume much quicker than the switches on the wheel. Give me a mute button and I'm happy

 

The only audio on/off button is on the unit itself.

 

I agree. My hand naturally rests in that spot and it would feel so satisfying to turn that loose knob and feel it click, and have the volume decrease. The volume on the steering wheel is a little awkward and slightly inconvenience in comparison, and my smartphone is a far superior product so I never have to change anything on the head unit, just keep it on aux, so this would give the commander knob more use for me. #firstworldproblems

Also having seek there would come in handy. I have found myself wanting this on multiple occasions, as well as blinker switches. I have found myself becoming very lazy when driving this vehicle, I think it's because of the other luxury features. When I Drive and I'm cruising, I find myself not even wanting to move my hands, and feeling like moving my hands over to the side of the wheel to enable the old style turning signals, is a bit of a microscopic chore. Blinker switches on the steering wheel or towards the bottom of it, or at the commander knob, would come in very handy. But we're talking about the manufacturer who still has a manual transmission. They want us putting in some work. I would also like to add at this point, that the three blink feature on the turn signals is pretty useless. It's illegal in my state to turn with only blinking 3 times, & I would imagine it's the same way and almost every state. if they would have made that 6 or 9, I would actually use that feature and have a much better experience using the blinker. I know it sounds kind of weird, but turning the blinker on and switching lanes, and then turning it off, is kind of a chore.

 

Also having seek there would come in handy. I have found myself wanting this on multiple occasions, as well as blinker switches. I have found myself becoming very lazy when driving this vehicle, I think it's because of the other luxury features. When I Drive and I'm cruising, I find myself not even wanting to move my hands, and feeling like moving my hands over to the side of the wheel to enable the old style turning signals, is a bit of a microscopic chore. Blinker switches on the steering wheel or towards the bottom of it, or at the commander knob, would come in very handy. But we're talking about the manufacturer who still has a manual transmission. They want us putting in some work. I would also like to add at this point, that the three blink feature on the turn signals is pretty useless. It's illegal in my state to turn with only blinking 3 times, & I would imagine it's the same way and almost every state. if they would have made that 6 or 9, I would actually use that feature and have a much better experience using the blinker. I know it sounds kind of weird, but turning the blinker on and switching lanes, and then turning it off, is kind of a chore.

:huh::huh::huh:

If using only 1 blinker were illegal around here, every other person on the road would be pulled over every time they changed lanes, let alone it being 3!.......:lol: The 3 blink is the most convenient and amazing thing I've ever had haha. Changing lanes on a highway has never been so easy - just tap and go.

Having manuals my whole life, I naturally drive with my left hand, so my right is always resting on the commander - therefore it's a nuisance to shuffle/skip songs since that's on the right hand side of the wheel.

 

Yeah, isn't the 3-blink thing for changing lanes on the freeway?

 

Yes, and it's incredibly convenient regardless if there's traffic or not. I use it around the city as well though :lol: