Cars with a reasonably tall choice of manual transmission gearing?
 

I'm trying to think of cars that have a decent choice of gear ratios for an economic manual transmission.
So far I have this:
Geo Metro XFi
Honda Civic CX/VX/HF/HX
Honda Insight
Something RWD that a taller rear diff can be swapped into.
Have I missed any cars that have a decent choice of gear ratios and stand a change to get good fuel economy?

The Cobalt XFE I believe had taller gearing.

Doesn't get good FE, but my '91 stang has 2.73 gears, cruises like 1900rpm at 70 or something like that. It's ridiculous.

My dad's corolla cruises at 80 at 3000 RPM with a 4a-fe converted to a 4a-f (don't ask,) but both are a slushbox.

3.773 gearing iirc is 3k @ 80.

OK, I give up. What does one do with the answer to this question? :confused:

On that note, try anything with a Tremec T56 (Corvettes and LS/1 Camaros come to mind, though there are others). Stupid tall .5 6th gear. We are talking 1400rpm at 60. Even "average joe" drivers claimed 30mpg highway from them, even owing to the usual BS factors, that's pretty good.

Mostly make myself feel worse about being unemployed and only acquiring money through a side business I run to ensure I can keep going to college, or it seems that way.

The real reason is that there has to be more than just what I listed in the OP for cars that would respond well to a boat tail since a stock Honda civic cx/vx/hx/hf around here is like cake at fat camp, the insights are quite expensive, and the geo metros are usually already in the scrapyard.


I occasionally wonder about the feasibility of building a boat tail onto a RWD station wagon and install a tall rear diff and a wide ratio manual

H-Man if you wanna buy my HX I would be willing to let it go for what I have into it. But I think even then it would be out of your price range.

Unless you really need the interior space of a station-wagon, I'd consider to get a 4th-gen Camaro due to its light platform and good aerodynamics.

Stand a chance of getting good FE? All of them! The clutch pedal is there so you can pulse and glide easily :)

I don't have the fine motor skills or patience to deal with P&G.

I end up trying to figure out what to look for wayy in advance of when I need to get it.
At this point in time everything is out of my price range, heck I could afford the $1400 for my prizm (a bit much for the condition, but it would have cost me $100 for every week I didn't have an efficient car by the last week of August 2012, I bought it in the 2nd week of August 2012 because it was the only manual transmission car I could find on craigslist that didn't have any disqualifying traits (excessive cost, oil burning, salvage title, severe mechanical issues, no smog papers, no pinkslip, etc,)) because I worked my butt off that summer at a computer repair shop that paid flat rate.


Although a friend is looking for an efficient car right now, there is a snowball's chance in hell a HX is going to go for <$2k.

I'm going to assume that if I'm going RWD, it will be for a family car.

Those Crown Vics from the 90s look fairly aerodynamic. I wonder how would perform one with the Essex 4.2L V6 and the manual transmission out of an F-150 with its differential that is already taller than the one of the truck...

A buddy of mine has a '92 vic, and before his transmission BBQ'D he was getting 26-31mpg out of it. Then again he drove almost 100% freeway at 60-65mph.

I got my HX for 2k. It only needed about ~500$ in repairs. I have about 1k in it right now after the tranny swap and some other goodies.

So, now mind you how efficient that platform could be with an engine that is going to have less pumping losses, and a manual transmission. Can we say 40MPG land-yacht? :D

Was that with or without AC? When I spec out a car's fuel consumption for highway use in sunny socal, I assume AC will have to be ran at least moderately.

That would be amazing to see.

I know he doesn't use A/C. I know he rolls with the windows down which is almost just as bad as using the A/C.

My Saturn has a .605 fifth gear and a 4.025 final, 2.95 overall ratio, 2040 RPM at 65 MPH with 205/70R15 tires.

How bad is the oil consumption? I've heard that the saturns from that time burn oil, in cali smog laws make anything that kills catalysts expensive to keep running.

Chevy Cavalier 2 dr
I had one. Gearing was so tall it was even difficult to precision park.
Unless you get a super low mileage one, now they became a 10+ year old American car and that spells trouble. While your car won't spend any gas getting towed (Top Gear reasoning) you might need to get towed quite frequently and the tows are gas guzzlers.

Knowing the overdrive ratio without knowing the first gear ratio is only half the story, as your launching (first) gear ratio will affect how tall of a final drive gear you can install and maintain some semblance of taking off or maneuvering at low speeds.

In a perfect world of picking and choosing parts, I would pick the transmission with the widest spread between first and overdrive and then adjust the actual engine to road ratios by selecting final drive gears and tire diameter.

If you are willing to think way outside the ballpark…. You can get a GM NV4500 manual with a first of 6.34 and fifth of 0.732. Take an older GM car set up for a Big Block (like a corvette), swap in a Diesel Isuzu 4BD1, NV4500 Manual, 2.56 Axle, Tall Tires and you would have an efficiency machine.

Back in the real world, look a gear spread, final drive ratio, and tire diameter to get the full story on a given car’s gearing. Be aware of what parts are direct swaps from other models, i.e. the axle or gear from a similar model or the same model overseas to get a better final drive ratio. Also look at where a given engine makes its torque, and if you can get ahold of one look at a BSFC chart.

Or just buy a car and be happy with it. As long as you aren’t picking a car mainly based on the color, I don’t think you will make a bad decision.