A steering wheel (20) that has an axis of turning (64) axis for steering a motor vehicle that has an engine, a drivetrain, a transmission that provides different gear ratios for coupling the engine to the drivetrain, and a transmission controller that in an automatic mode automatically shifts the transmission from one gear ratio to another in response to changing vehicle torque requirements and in a manual mode shifts the transmission from one gear ratio to another in response to manual actuation of a shift command device. A module (36) contains both the shift command device (58, 60) and a mode selection device (62) for selecting between the automatic and manual modes.