Not a fan of gear stalks, but one can reasonably disregard the “P(ark)” problem, since the button is redundant. The car will pull the (electric) handbrake on the traffic lights itself, and apply the parking brake when you turn the car off. We had cars with electric handbrakes for 5 years now, not a single time did i have to use the button to manually apply the handbrake.
I would assume that the Austral has a similar system, it at least has the button to activate the automatic handbrake (right hand side towards the knee).
For the lever itself, i’m not a professional and i don’t exactly know the range of motion you have, but i am reasonably certain that this can be adapted pretty easily, even home made with a 3d printer. For the most basic of options, you just need to zip tie a slightly bent stick to it, to be able to actuate it from the left. I’m just suggesting this janky solution as an argument to point out that it’s a rather simple solution, not to suggest you should actually do it yourself.
Further, it’s an electric gearbox (as in, you don’t physically move something to get it into gear), so more sophisticated solutions should be able to relocate the lever entirely – it’d be just a matter of relocating (or extending) the cable that signals the gearbox what to do. Potentially even turn it into buttons rather than a lever, depending on what other (if any) controls are located on that stalk.
All in all, i do think it’s possible to adapt the column shift to something you can use, the question simply boils down to finding it (and MB willing to pay for it). The real question would be, is it worth doing so over just finding an alternative (as long as they still exist).
After having driven two cars with column shift, i don’t even understand why they’re a thing. They’re not more convenient, and they add nothing. Especially in the Austral, where there is already a huge “lever” type design element in the centre console anyway, just make that the gear stick.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.