Question about overdrive gears

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Boston Fit
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Question about overdrive gears

Post by Boston Fit »


It seems like most modern manuals have 6 speeds, but it was only a generation ago that they generally had 4 speeds, with 4th gear being - I believe - a roughly 1:1 ratio. When did overdrive (5th gear) become commonplace in U.S. passsenger cars? How about 6th?
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by Shadow »

Boston Fit wrote:
It seems like most modern manuals have 6 speeds, but it was only a generation ago that they generally had 4 speeds, with 4th gear being - I believe - a roughly 1:1 ratio. When did overdrive (5th gear) become commonplace in U.S. passsenger cars? How about 6th?
I think 5th gear became common in the 80s. 6th gear probably more like in the late 90s or early 2000s, but I think it depends on the car. There were lots of 5- and 6-speed cars being made at the same time. And don't forget that Porsche just recently came out with a 7-speed manual transmission.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by bk7794 »

Shadow wrote:
Boston Fit wrote:
It seems like most modern manuals have 6 speeds, but it was only a generation ago that they generally had 4 speeds, with 4th gear being - I believe - a roughly 1:1 ratio. When did overdrive (5th gear) become commonplace in U.S. passsenger cars? How about 6th?
I think 5th gear became common in the 80s. 6th gear probably more like in the late 90s or early 2000s, but I think it depends on the car. There were lots of 5- and 6-speed cars being made at the same time. And don't forget that Porsche just recently came out with a 7-speed manual transmission.
Exactly, a lot of common passenger cars still carry 5 speeds, civic (non si), fiesta just to name a few.

I know my civic had an option to get a 4 or a 5 speed. However the 4 speeds were common on the base hatchbacks with vinyl seats.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by DKaz »

I think one of the last 4 speeds available was a base model Tercel up until 1994. I've never owned a 4 speed manual before personally, not in any of my Civics and not in my one POS Chevy Sprint, in my 88 Civic had 6 speeds, but instead of an extra overdrive gear, it had a super low gear just to the left of first gear. 4 speeds were common in most compacts up until the 80s when 5 speed went from an upgrade to standard in most cars, except the Tercel. I think Corolla had 5 speed become standard in 84.

6 speeds only started to become standard in some economy compacts (Hyundai Elantra & Accent, Kia Rio), is an option to others, or not available at all.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by Boston Fit »


Thanks for the replies so far. I guess 6 speeds are maybe not as common as I originally thought - perhaps the market is still split about 50/50 between 5- and 6-speed, then? It would be neat to see how that breaks down. It does seem like 5th gear became commonplace in the 80's based on the info above.

I am intrigued by the "super low gear" in DKaz's 88 Civic ...
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by theholycow »

Crawl aka "granny" gears were common in trucks...not so much in cars. I imagine DKaz had a Civic Wagovan 4x4. I don't think the 5 + crawl transmission was offered in other Civics. Late 1970s GM pickups had a crawl gear. I can't remember if it was 4 speeds including the "L" crawl gear or if it was 4 road speeds + the "L" crawl gear.

I think most 4 speed manuals had 3rd as 1:1 and 4th as overdrive.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by potownrob »

dad's old 92 F250 (inline-6, 5-speed) had a supposed granny 1st gear, but i don't remember it being that low. my dad always said the tranny was just like a 4-speed with a granny 1st, and he usually started it in 2nd. had a neighbor friend's dad with a F-150 with the same tranny (or so he said). he used to start it in 1st though (didn't get to drive that one, so not sure it was really the same tranny).
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by watkins »

In Ram trucks with the Cummins and six speed, 1st gear is pointless unless towing or loaded. When I drive them empty I always launch in 2nd.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by bk7794 »

theholycow wrote:Crawl aka "granny" gears were common in trucks...not so much in cars. I imagine DKaz had a Civic Wagovan 4x4. I don't think the 5 + crawl transmission was offered in other Civics. Late 1970s GM pickups had a crawl gear. I can't remember if it was 4 speeds including the "L" crawl gear or if it was 4 road speeds + the "L" crawl gear.

I think most 4 speed manuals had 3rd as 1:1 and 4th as overdrive.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by Shadow »

Boston Fit wrote:
Thanks for the replies so far. I guess 6 speeds are maybe not as common as I originally thought - perhaps the market is still split about 50/50 between 5- and 6-speed, then? It would be neat to see how that breaks down. It does seem like 5th gear became commonplace in the 80's based on the info above.

I am intrigued by the "super low gear" in DKaz's 88 Civic ...
The vast majority of today's manual transmission cars are 6-speeds. I don't think it's anywhere near a 50/50 split. There are still 5-speed manuals available, but they are not very common at all if you compare them to the number of 6-speed models available today. It seems that most 5-speed cars today are either economy cars or trucks.
Last edited by Shadow on Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by Shadow »

Here's a quick list that I compiled. Most of these are 2011 models, so it's not exactly up-to-date with the newest cars, but it still helps illustrate just how many 6-speed versus 5-speed models are available. Most of these I knew off the top of my head, but when I was unsure I had to look up the powertrain options, which I quickly found on Edmunds.com. The models in yellow are 6-speed cars and the models in red are 5-speed cars. Also note that there are a few cars that are yellow & red because they are available with both 5- and 6-speeds. Overall, it looks like about 83 cars on the list are 6-speed and 29 are 5-speed.

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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by six »

The 6th gear of most the cars on the list are "true" overdrive gears with a significantly taller ratio than the 6-speeds that are in sports cars, for the sake of fuel efficiency. For sports cars, the 6th gear usually has a similar ratio to 5th gear of similar 5-speed cars, with the ratios spaced apart appropriately between the remaining gears. The purpose of early 6-speeds was to keep gear-ratios closer together, keeping the car in the meatiest section of the powerband with each shift. The term "close-ratio 6-speed" that are used in sports car literature is derived from this.
Last edited by six on Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by AHTOXA »

The cruze ecos and turbo sonics technically have 3 overdtrive gears - 4th, 5th and 6th.
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by potownrob »

AHTOXA wrote:The cruze ecos and turbo sonics technically have 3 overdtrive gears - 4th, 5th and 6th.
you can't be serious :shock: :o :evil: :(
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Re: Question about overdrive gears

Post by six »

It's true. They call it the ECO Triple-overdrive gearset.

6M transmission (M32), Eco
Axle = 3.833:1
6th = 0.614:1
5th = 0.744:1
4th = 0.959:1
3rd = 1.302:1
2nd = 2.158:1
1st = 4.273:1
Rev = 3.540:1

SUPER short 1st gear, then the rest is as tall as the Empire State building.
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