I drove both this weekend and the auto revs about 3000 RPM at 70 mph. The stick was easily 300-400 rpm higher...

Any of you manual tranny drivers pipe in will ya? What rpm are you at when your going 70 mph?

SHU

The 5 speed is ~500 rpm higher at highway cruising speed. Why? Who the heck knows! We need a 6the gear for highway speeds. That would also improve gas mileage.

gearing....torque converter.....
6th gear *drool*

it took me a while to get used to it.... i'm always driving on the freeway, and am always cruising at around 80mph which places me at about 4k rpm...

-Alex B.

OverDrive, baby. :D :D :D

there are these things called gear ratios, which probably vary quite a bit between the A/T and the M/T. If you get a 6th gear that would mean that all the other gear ratios would have to be changed. I drive a matrix xrs right now with a 6spd tranny and im not a big fan of it. Mainly because its geared too agressively, which means first gear is real tall it gets me to just about 50 mph, 2nd gets me to around 66, 3rd - 90, 4th 110, 5th - well...ive been to over 130 in 5th, 6th - i dont even know, i got scared at 138. but thats not really relating to your question. basically throwing in another gear just means more shifting, i personally cant wait until my tC gets here with a 5spd. you dont need more than 5 gears in a 4 cyl.

its a shame you can't modify the 5 speed to get longer shift points, similar to the matrix above, just for lower speeds. the xb tranny seems more like a cruise around town and not to much on the freeway. or maybe it's designed to rev high?

The 5 speed is ~500 rpm higher at highway cruising speed. Why? Who the heck knows! We need a 6the gear for highway speeds. That would also improve gas mileage.

I agree. If they out in a 6spd like the one in the spider with a fina; drive gear to match the charteristics of the box that would help. I would like to see to 2500rpm @ 75 mph.

The 5 speed is ~500 rpm higher at highway cruising speed. Why? Who the heck knows! We need a 6the gear for highway speeds. That would also improve gas mileage.

I agree. If they out in a 6spd like the one in the spider with a fina; drive gear to match the charteristics of the box that would help. I would like to see to 2500rpm @ 75 mph.

You could do equally well with a taller final drive ratio in the 5-speed. Put the Echo final gears on an xB and you'd see about 2800RPM at 75MPH. The only reason to go to a 6-speed is if the engine is so highly tuned that it needs narrow ratios. That isn't the case with the xB's engine.

I think that taller gears would be a good thing, especially as it would raise the extremely low first gear to the point where it might actually get you out of an intersection before shifting.

George

is there a way to make your gears "taller?"