mine is a 1.2 petrol 70bhp and does it just under 3000

My mates 1.6 16V Saxo VTS Revs around 3500rpm maybe a lil more at 70mph!

Gets tiresome on the motorway, constant droning with the cat back exhaust system.

mine is a 1.2 petrol 70bhp and does it just under 3000

I have Fabia 2 70hp H/Back(57 plate) and mine does 3550rpm at 70mph-I believe the gearing works out at 19.9mph/1000 rpm in 5th-are you sure yours is the same?

today i was doing a constant of K MPH which would be 87MPH but my RPM never went above 3

i have a 1.4 TDI 70 hp spec engine

What does doing a constant K MPH mean?! Chasefreak, how about a bit of clear English?

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Supermini's are in general not the choice for high mileage motorway work and simply don't require a sixth gear, as determined by the manufacturers. Five works ok for most. But there are other factors too. As has been said, cost, but useability too. Although, overall it's what the car is in the main going to be used for that dictates how the designers will kit the gearbox out. Supermini's tend to be used for shorter trips. The current trend for six gears is going to continue in the search for economy and flexibility and lower emmissions etc, and will no doubt spread to some more of the supermini's... but in the main most small cars won't be given a sixth gear as it simply isn't needed.

Oh crikey! Sorry...a bit long and sounds like a sermon, it's not! :confused:

Thanks for this interesting and informative post.

To add my thoughts:

I think there is a sub-set of Fabia owners who see their Fabia as a "junior" small familiy car rather than a supermini (I'm one!). When it was introduced, the mk 1 fell roughly half-way in size between the contemporary Polo and Mk 4 Golf, and was consistently praised for its larger car ride and refinement. I guess many now buying the mk 2 are maintaining those expectations. The estate seems to target small families, and with the bigger engines eg 1.9 TDI, it does a reasonable job as a car that crosses into family/only car territory and thus needs to be able to handle longer journeys.

I find my 1.9 reasonably refined on the motorway without a 6th gear, but when I recently test drove a 1.6 manual (ironically in search of more refinement) I was disappointed at the induction noise and boominess of the engine at 70. Whether a 6th gear would help much I'm not sure.

1.9TDi Fabia Mk2 - 2,200rpm at 70MPH. The car is very pleasant indeed to drive at this speed, not at all noisy and because the engine is so torquey it is very responsive. Although I do think the insulation against noise could be better executed - it is noisier at idle than I think it would be if more attention was paid to this (seems like the noise largely emanates from around where the gearbox goes under the firewall to the engine compartment), by the time you get to 70MPH the engine noise is not an issue at all.