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Just watched a Nissan Altima commercial.

Push Button ignition is a feature.

My 55' 190SL has push button ignition.

So did my buddy's 1950 BUICK!!

All the Jags did until the late 60's.

In the right car a push button start would be a great thing to experience. A Nissan altima is not the right car, be a long shot, actually it seems like most people would consider it a hassle after about the fifth time.

Same with the Lotus Elise. Nothing but pretentiousness - even in the Elise.

Push button ignition is stupid. Awesome if you had a really old car with switches for fuel pumps etc. But anything short of a race car who are you kidding. Just a waste of time.

Actually it is pretty nice. My wife has an 07 Infiniti G-35. When we got it I thought ok whoopty doo. Now I think it is pretty slick. If you have the key fob in you pocket you just get in the car put your foot on the brake and push the start button. No fumbling with keys. Trivial but nice.

We're kind of ignoring the deeper questions:

1 - Why did push-button ignition die?

2 - Why is it making a comeback?

I agree completely!!! No Keys! Why is that not a cool feature?

On some cars -- BMWs maybe? -- the driver must insert the fob into a slot on the dash & then push the start button.

I see no value in changing a time-proven, 1-step process into a 2-step process.

I'm okay with a 1-step (fob in the pocket) start button.

My Touareg has this feature, it's great.

It's just another attempt to make an economy sedan appear to be a sports car; companies have been doing this for years.

A 17 year-old girl I work with was bragging one day about her "really fast sports car". Sure enough, it was a 2004-ish Altima. I very calmly told her something like, "I don't mean any offense, but an Altima is not a sports car." Her comeback was something about having almost 200hp or something. I explained to her the logic of power-to-weight ratio. She looked at me as though I was speaking Greek.

Apparently she was getting pretty angry, and blurted "well I bet it's a lot faster then whatever you drive!", at which our other coworkers started laughing. At her.

My 1952 bug with 25hp has a push-button starter - does that make it a sports car?

I don't know how it is on the Altima but I would assume it is the same as the Infiniti. You have you remote in your pocket. There is one button on the door handle. You either push it to lock the car or unlock it. The key is in your pocket or your wifes purse you don't have to fumble around for it. I thought it was gimmicky at first but I hope all cars go to it.

No need to press the button when unlocking the car, it just opens when it senses you (remote) are near the car. The button's used when locking the car.

Not exactly - the Nissan requires the user to push a button on the door (fob in pocket) and push the door button twice to unlock all doors. I prefer to use the fob to unlock the doors because if I hold down the button, all of the windows roll down and let the heat out of the car - oops, there is another gimmick! Stupid new Nissan products.

My guess is that it was eliminated due to bean counters. It costs more to have an extra switch and wiring to and from. The built in start switch has less wiring and costs less. Eliminate $1 on each car and that saves money.

Its coming back as an advertising gimmick. Just another bit of fluff to try and sell a new car.

I'm referring to the VW Touareg mode of operation.

BMW does it more stupidly than anyone. You must insert the key then push the button. Unless you pay $1,000 for the "comfort access" feature. No I am not making this up.

But I guess we should be thankful it's not an I Drive feature- that would require maneuvering through seven screens, inserting the key and then pushing the button on the dash but only when the start sequence screen finishes computing your acceptance of the liability clause, flashes and says "Push Button to Start". If you lift your foot from the brake the entire process must be repeated.

Our G35 has way more stupid things than the push button start (I still think is awesome).

How about the 200 or so voice commands? I can press a button and wait for the chick to tell me to "say a command" then I say "set temperature 72 degrees" then she replies "temperature 72 degrees" and the readout changes. All the while I could have moved my had 6 inches and turned the dial to 72!!!! While fun to show people - very impractical.

One way cool thing is the stereo – the new Nissan products will rip CD’s on a hard drive – play music directly from a CF card, not to mention 6 disk changer in the back and a single disk in the front – whew – that a lot of music!