why don't we have a 6th gear?

well I just finished breaking in my 06 Legacy GT for 1000 miles and now more than ever I don't understand why Subaru keeps on supplying this car with only 5 forward gears. I think we have a 4.11 rear and only about .7x overdrive in 5th. The car is plenty quick in acceleration, so why not a taller rear, 5th gear or better yet 6th gear?

 

Any theories besides it's cheaper

Lord knows the gas mileage would go right up!

cheaper for a simple 5 spd tranny...

Cheaper for a 5 speed shift knob

didn't we discuss this arleadie?!

the best guess compromise of how to sell the most cars while making the most cash

The only thing better than selling someone a new car with a 5 speed is to sell them another new car a couple years later with a 6 speed. They can always add it as an option later and get repeat business. I'm sure there is a lot of marketing as well as logic that goes behind only having a 5 speed.

Are you sure? Maybe someone accidentally forgot to put the 6th gear in your car. Might want to head over to Indiana and check underneath the work bench.

 

More gears isn't always better for performance. Many cars end up having 2 overdrive gears which is great for gas mileage but sucks for performance. Also if the lower gears are shorter, you might have to do an extra shift to get up to 60. No matter how fast you can shift, once it is out of gear, you are decelerating. The fewer shifts you do, the less time you spend decelerating.

uh-oh they might have forgotten your complimentary can of old milwalkie(sp?) too.

Because you only have 2 posts.

If they DO decide later to slap the 6spd in it... but DON'T hook the LGT up with the telescoping steering wheel & STi style seats.... than SOA might just get a visit!

uh-oh they might have forgotten your complimentary can of old milwalkie(sp?) too.

Bwahahahahaha

 

Because you only have 2 posts.

Bwahahahahaha

I remeber reading the Legacys 5th gear is not far off the STI's 6th gear. Both cars in their respective top gears at 60mph would not yeild much of an rpm difference.

^^See there.... just when I think I've got something figured out.... somebody's gotta make me feel like an idiot! *Isn't hard anyway!*

 

I prefer the 5spd over 6 anyway. Longer pulls.

 

W/ the STi style seats & a tele wheel.... this car would be worh more to me than a Ferrari Enzo!

 

*Okay.... that may have been an exageration right there!*

STI, then Impreza, then Legacy.

 

If you want more car, you gotta get a different car.

 

Legacy is a blend of what works

thanks for all the thoughts, i personally agree it's a cost trade off.

 

Some very interesting thoughts on having less gears were posted.

Here are my conclusions:

less gears are not desirable, more gears and quicker shifts will always outdo any lower number of gears. Constantly variable ratio transmission prove this.

 

Yes, 5th and 6th usually tend to be overdrives, meaning that 1-4th gear can be left relatively short. In fact 5th is typically a top speed gear and 6th is for pure mileage.

 

I just came out of a WRX, and the compared to my GT it doesn't compare. Honestly, the GT accelerates and shifts much better. But it does turn way more RPMs for the same speed compared to my WRX. The WRX would get ~24 mpg average city/highway with plenty of spirited runs. The GT, sucks fuel like a pig at ~4200 rpm at 95 mph. A 6th gear would get us the best of both worlds.

 

BTW, the optimum gear spacing has to do with landing at a the optimum acceleration in the next gear. Shift before or after that and you land at a sub-optimum acceleration. More gears get you to a higher average acceleration curve, leading to the best 0 to anything mph times. Hence the attractiveness of a constantly variable transmission, power train losses aside.

STI, then Impreza, then Legacy.

 

If you want more car, you gotta get a different car.

 

Legacy is a blend of what works

IMO, teh Leg is more car than the Impreza.

Since our cars have a broad fairly flat torque curve there's not a need for more gears. Engines with peakier torque curves, like Honda's, get a greater benefit out of having more gears. The closer spacing helps keep the engine revs up in the meaty part of the torque curve. Plus, Subaru's six speed is a monster of a gear box and it costs a lot more money than the 5spd.

I say that a 6th gear would be beneficial...I think the first 4 should remain the same, 5th could be slightly shorter and 6th slightly longer than the current fifth, to yield a lower rpm at hwy speeds...thus increasing gas milage at higher speeds.

No matter how fast you can shift, once it is out of gear, you are decelerating.

 

Not true, depending on how hard you were initially accelerating, if you shift fast enough, your rate of acceleration slows down, but you dont necessarily decelerate.

I wouldnt mind a 6th gear, but if you look at adding one in, you won't ever really have the use for it (for the streets that is, even on the highway unless you plan to do 85 mph and cruise at a low 2,250 rpms or so).. and for the track use (or road racing), you wont need to shift into 6th until you top out 5th anyways, which comes out to over 135 mph (if you even have the power to even drive the car up to that speed on the road race track)..

 

If Subaru is going to stick a 6spd in the car, it would be similar to what the STi would be and use a 4.25 final drive, keep the rest of the gear ratios the same, add a taller 6th than the STi (so we can have a usable 1st gear for once, and hopefully crank out another 75~100 hp out of the motor.. now that's a real GT car

My Formula had a 6speed in it. It was kind of nice to have 2 overdrive gears. 6 was useless for passing, but that extra tall gear helped in mpg. It was great to have a 5.7L V8 with over 300HP and still get almost 30mpg when on the interstate. If I remember correctly I could be doing 75mph and I think in 6 gear the rpms were like 1700rpms. At 75 in the Legacy I am at 3000rpm and in my forester XT I am at 3100rpm.

My LGT is the first car I ever had that I hit redline in fifth. A sixth gear w/ slightly different spacing (somewhere in between STI and currect LGT) would be best IMO.

Because you only have 2 posts.

 

LOL hahhahaha

My LGT is the first car I ever had that I hit redline in fifth. A sixth gear w/ slightly different spacing (somewhere in between STI and currect LGT) would be best IMO.

 

did you notice how long it took for your car to hit redline in 5th?

I would love for the gearing to remain the same, but have a 6th gear that would give me 75mph at about 2750-2800 rpm. I just don't feel good about running my engine at 3000-3300 rpm for prolonged periods. Maybe the subie is strong enough to do this all day for 150,00+ miles, but it doesn't feel that way.