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I will never understand manufacturers gearing choices. Seems like every manual trans car I have ever owned could have had a significantly higher top gear.
This was sort of understandable in prehistoric times with 3-4 speeds. You had to consider the spacing of ratios. But a 5 or especially, a 6 speed?
I test drove an MT 6 speed once and immediately thought, WTF is Honda thinking? This thing is supposed to have efficiency as a selling point and I can run around all day at 35 mph in 6th. Even pull slight hill.
I suspect the answer to why they do this is that they cater to people apparently unaware of the fine art of downshifting and car mag writers.
Take a look in a road test in C&D. They post top gear acceleration stats.
They realize that some people will look at these numbers and think, huh, car A pulls better than car B in the 50-70 test. A must be better! Also these writers obsess over close ratio trannies and staying in the "power band".
It's a freaking road car, dummy. It is not a track car. 3/10ths of a second off the lap time is irrelevant. But people are dumb. And salesmen that will point out these irrelevant stats are shameless.
My '09 Sonata is probably the worst example of this I have owned.
It can be lugged around at 30 mph in 5th on level ground just fine. It really needs a 6th gear.
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