I have never yet driven a car with ideal gear ratios. What with all the experience that manufacturers have in designing cars, why have these not been addressed? even Autocar mag keeps grumbling about poorly selected ratios on even otherwise excellent cars...

1st gear. Always to low. Why not make it a bit longer to actually be useful to punch the car into traffic flow? Always seems limited by engine inertia.

2nd gear. Usually OK, but not in harmony with 1st - revs usually drop too much when changing up.

3rd gear. Usually good - no complaints here.

4th gear. Either too close to 3rd or too far away.

5th gear. Usually far too low. I do not want 4000 RPM on the motorway at 75-80mph. Renault, Skoda, Nissan - most cars in fact are all the same. The less said about the eardrum pain from 4 speed Fiestas on the motorway the better.

If the ratios were properly stacked we could slot into top and cruise at 70 MPH at around 2800-3000 revs, but this is never the case. In my Fabia VRS the 6th gear is perfect for cruising but again, if the ratios were thought out better a high 5th would be a simpler option.

I know that some people like the scream of high revs, but why not have the best of both worlds - good low ratios (acceleration) and a good top (cruising).

What do you think? What sort of ratios do you like? What don't you like?

Thoughts welcome...

TH

You might have a different view of first gear if you ever had to pull away up Hard Knott 4-up.

As for fifth, I find 75mph at 2_500rpm long enough.

Second through fourth seem quite nicely stacked, giving similar revs drops with each upchange.

I found my 05 Fabia VRS very well geared. Remember with a modern TDI's narrowish power band widening ratios would bugger things up.

I find my current DSG to be good except for 6th gear which is a little too short, especially when paired with a torqey TDI.

On the other hand, my previous Hyundai Getz with a 4 speed (Technically 3+ Overdrive) slushmatic could do 50MPH in 1st gear, 80MPH in 2nd and acheived top speed in 3rd Gear (On the rev limiter at 6.5kRPM), it couldnt accelerate in 4th as it looses all torque to the overdrive. Now that was **** poor, always in the wrong gear all of the time. My DSG is a great improvement