What is 6th gear for?

[Guest]

I rarely drive faster than 120kph. On my recent country trip I noticed that whenever I slipped into 6th at, say 110kph, revs drop to ~1800 and fuel economy decreased. I feel most comfortable driving at ~2000rpm which means 3rd gear around town at 60kph, 4th up to 90kph an 5th on the freeway/open road up to 120kph.

6th must be for 140kph on the autobahn.

What are your thoughts/experience?

[h100vw]

Without a doubt 6th is for saving fuel. The circumstances have to be right though and it is possible that using 5th would be better for economy.

Consider that in the home of VW the autobahn is unrestricted in places. Not a bad thing IMO

Gavin

[Jimanjen]

This is an interesting question....we drive a five day a week 45 klick each way commute to work,it is on a winding,country road,between two towns...we have no traffic lights,the occassional truck,and generally have a very nice drive to and from work.We often exceed 120 kph,coz its safe and fun,and we use sixth a fair bit.....we are more of the opinion that we dont need fifth gear!.....If we wanna pass,straight from sixth to fourth,give it heaps,a quick visit to fifth if needed ,but usually straight back to sixth. Jennie and I are still getting used to the characteristics of a diesel engine,and a manual box(we have been lazy auto drivers for many years)but it is a fun learning curve!

[Vicbitter]

I rarely drive faster than 120kph. On my recent country trip I noticed that whenever I slipped into 6th at, say 110kph, revs drop to ~1800 and fuel economy decreased. I feel most comfortable driving at ~2000rpm which means 3rd gear around town at 60kph, 4th up to 90kph an 5th on the freeway/open road up to 120kph.

6th must be for 140kph on the autobahn.

What are your thoughts/experience?

At 110kph in 6th, i'm at about 2200-2400rpm's.
at 100pkh in 6th, i'm at about 2100rpm's.
I too feel most comfortable at 2000+ rpms in any gear.
I shift at 2500 when warming up, and at 3000 when warmed. (and 3000+ when i wanna clean out the exhaust on the ppl sticking up my arse in the left lane)

[chisler]

in terms of fuel economy, I've found 6th is best when using cruise control on a "very" flat road. but if I even do some mild acceleration, or even drive up a slight inline in the road, then the economy gets blown out, and its better to drop a gear.

We often exceed 120 kph,coz its safe and fun,and we use sixth a fair bit.....we are more of the opinion that we dont need fifth gear!.....If we wanna pass,straight from sixth to fourth,give it heaps,a quick visit to fifth if needed ,but usually straight back to sixth.

I'm planing on testing out using 6th and 4th for my daily commute next week, which is a country road, and far from flat.

I'm trying to find the best performance/economy, so far only tested using 6th/5th, and 5th/4th and 5th.

[shogun2]

This is an interesting question. I use 6th driving around town at anything above 70Kph. The diesel torque is sufficient to get me going even when around the 1200 rpm.

[jets]

On a level road, the min. speeds I use are 70Kph for 5th & 90Kph for 6th. If there is the slightest incline I change down, particularly for these 2 highest gears.

[Russ59]

When ever I'm cruising along the highway, freeway, whatever way I hardly ever drop back from 6th gear, as others have said, with the torque of the diesels you rarely need to, especially on hills

The answer to the original post (why is there a 6th gear ?) would IMO have to be mainly for economy


Russ

[jets]

The answer to the original post (why is there a 6th gear ?) would IMO have to be mainly for economy
Russ

It's also to reduce engine noise while cruising & engine wear by turning at slower revs. I wish my T4 Syncro had a 6th gear. While having a low first gear & evenly spaced ratios, it revs a little to high for my liking while cruising[around 2,700 rpm & 110Kph] & probably uses more fuel.

[CatonaPC©]

Just for the record, the DSG shifts to 6th gear at around 80km/h depending on the circumstances. At 115km/h (indicated), my Golf TDI was turning over at 2100RPM or so. The torque is so good, it didn't even shift down when overtaking.

[Russ59]

It's also to reduce engine noise while cruising & engine wear by turning at slower revs. I wish my T4 Syncro had a 6th gear. While having a low first gear & evenly spaced ratios, it revs a little to high for my liking while cruising[around 2,700 rpm & 110Kph] & probably uses more fuel.

I can't honestly say that I notice a great deal of difference in the diesel as far as the noise level is concerned, not at 100 kmh anyway. Some cars really could do with the 6th gear as you say, my Father in Law has an '84 Hilux 2.2 L diesel and a 4 speed manual gearbox, now there's noise when cruising I think from memory it does about 3800 rpm @ 100 kmh, it had an engine rebuild at 300,000 k's and now has 400,000 + k's on it and it just keeps on going.


Russ

[gregozedobe]

Also 6th gear allows a TDI to have a "respectable" top speed on those unrestricted autobahns (its a matter of pride, you know ? )

If we were legally allowed to cruise at speeds in excess of 130 kmh then 6th gear would be more useful than at our current legal maximums, where the engine is only just into its comfortable working speed range.

Even with the extra torque of my 2.5 TDI engine I often find myself changing back to 4th if I have had to back off on a hill for some reason. I prefer to keep the revs above 2,000 if I am asking an engine to do some serious work (and yes, I know TDIs will pull hard at 1,800, but I'm not convinced it is necessarily good for them - JMO ).

[Russ59]

Also 6th gear allows a TDI to have a "respectable" top speed on those unrestricted autobahns (its a matter of pride, you know ? )

If we were legally allowed to cruise at speeds in excess of 130 kmh then 6th gear would be more useful than at our current legal maximums, where the engine is only just into its comfortable working speed range.

Even with the extra torque of my 2.5 TDI engine I often find myself changing back to 4th if I have had to back off on a hill for some reason. I prefer to keep the revs above 2,000 if I am asking an engine to do some serious work (and yes, I know TDIs will pull hard at 1,800, but I'm not convinced it is necessarily good for them - JMO ).

C'mon admit it you just enjoy giving the diesel a good fang don't you

Russ

[gregozedobe]

C'mon admit it you just enjoy giving the diesel a good fang don't you

No, NO ! I only do it to keep the turbo vanes freed up

The excuse before that was "I need to drive hard to increase the pressure on the rings to run the engine in properly" (In the RS I just say I bought it to enjoy driving and leave it at that - thankfully the missus enjoys giving it the odd squirt too).

I must admit I get a quiet pleasure from the look of surprise from other drivers when they realize just how well my big white box goes in 3rd and 4th gear, on hills it is capable of surprising acceleration once it is moving.

[Russ59]

No, NO ! I only do it to keep the turbo vanes freed up

The excuse before that was "I need to drive hard to increase the pressure on the rings to run the engine in properly" (In the RS I just say I bought it to enjoy driving and leave it at that - thankfully the missus enjoys giving it the odd squirt too).

I must admit I get a quiet pleasure from the look of surprise from other drivers when they realize just how well my big white box goes in 3rd and 4th gear, on hills it is capable of surprising acceleration once it is moving.

Yeah, these new diesel engines are a far cry from the old dinosaur diesel era, I have given quite a few petrol 6 and even V8 drivers a jaw drop when they have tried to keep up on the hills (without having to drop back gears and really floor it). The most incredible part is that the fuel consumption really doesn't vary all that much if you give it a good fanging on the hwy or even cruising around town in traffic, you don't get the large variables in fuel consumption that you do in a petrol car. I'm a very happy diesel camper and will hopefully stay that way for some time to come

Russ