Originally Posted by TriShield
Six-speeds are the modern standard in manual transmissions, nearly every car worth a damn has a six-speed manual, not a five-speed. Your argument for using less gears is like arguing that an automatic should still have three or four speeds. If the LXs had come with a four-speed they would have been lambasted in reviews for it, and for good reason.
A brand new car should have entirely modern features, that includes transmissions with the appropriate amount of gears. Especially today in the era of high fuel prices. I'm not complaining about using sixth in my GTO and getting 28mpg on the freeway with it.
You actually need to look beyond what other cars have and see what the
real use of a 6th gear is. I highly doubt it that in US highways with speed limits at 55-65 a 6th gear is needed, even if you wanna get up to 110-120. Now, if you talk instead of using a Challenger in Germany while driving in the autobahn, fine you have an argument here (even though back in Europe I touched roughly 171 mph (on the tach) at least with my modded Ford Sierra Cosworth 4wd back in the early 90s and it had 5 gears...sure it was doing almost 7000 rpm and there a 6th gear would have been useful...).
As I said, if you read my post, I did not say that a 6th gear is absolutelly a waste of time and money, as I mentioned that for fuel consumption it can give a hand. But if fuel consumption is your thing, why buy a 425 hp muscle cars that weighs 4000 lbs ? Buy a Prius...
Having or not a 6th gear being a deal breaker, IMHO it's ridiculous...