Does any 6 speed owners see a need for a gear indicator?

[Stewcam]

Originally Posted by THUMPER20X

I did that for comedic purposes about 2 pages back lol. For those that missed it lol

Funny as $hit

[Wild Bill]

Originally Posted by Russ Hunsaker

Is it just me or do any of you 6 speed owners see a need for a gear indicator that would tell you what gear you are in? I don't drive my Camaro as a daily driver so maybe it is because I don't drive the car all the time, but often I find myself only in 4th gear instead of 5th or 6th gear. The car just runs so easy at 70MPH in 4th gear I always seem to forget to upshift into 5th or 6th. I also find myself in stop and go traffic kind of loosing track of what gear I'm in, or I find myself shifting from 3rd into 6th because I think I am in
5th gear instead of 3rd gear.

Like I said, maybe it's just because I don't drive the car very often. Or that I usually have the sunroof open and the radio volume up really loud and I'm not listening to the engine speed. But I often find myself wondering what gear I'm in. Last week I drove the car about 30 miles at 70MPH and didn't realize that I had been in 4th gear the entire time until I down shifted when I was exiting the highway.

I'm not new to owning a stick shift, I have owned several manual transmission vehicles but all of them were 4 speeds so you didn't have a problem knowing what gear you were in like with my 6 speed Camaro.

Russ

I do get your question.

Use your tacometer and speedometer in conjuction. You will get a feel for what gear you are in by what you are taching at certain speeds.

In NY, it is easy, with traffic, and a six speed, to forget what gear you are in. For example, I know if I'm tacking 1500 - 1600 at 70 MPH, I'm in 6th and not 4th. I hope this helps.

[camaroqueen]

Originally Posted by duder4thgen

Your car has a gear change indicator.

lmao

[drperry]

Originally Posted by Mark A Collier Sr

BOTTOM LINE! If you can't tell what gear you are in... You SHOULD NOT be driving a Standard Transmission! Some Drivers need IDIOT lights for a reason!

Or he needs to drive the car more

Not everyone is instantly comfortable with any shift pattern in every vehicle on the road...

Not knowing exactly where the gears are is mostly a simple matter of spending more time driving the car

[OHIOSS]

OMG some of you are really something. I DON'T have a problem knowing the gear pattern. I simply thought instead of having some worthless information on the DIC like average speed, or coolant temp it would be convenient to me to have a gear indicator. I have been driving a manual transmission longer than many of you have even been alive. How can a simple question turn into this stupidity? Like I'm sitting on the highway not knowing what gear I'm in all the time....I like to drive with the radio up loud and the sun roof open so I can't hear the engine speed. I mentioned driving for a long time in 4th gear instead of 6th, it happened ONCE! I have at times shifted into the wrong gear because I wasn't sure what gear I was in, but obviously very few have ever done this. It sounds like all of you professional "shifters" are just to damn smart to ever do anything like that. It has happened to me maybe 3 times in 2500 miles, it's not an every day thing and I haven't done it in several weeks. Now that I know to listen to the motor, watch the tach, and the other suggestions I'm sure it will never happen to me again.

Dan3- I didn't ask for an "idiot light" to tell me when to shift. Where in my original post did I even imply that was a problem? I simply asked if a gear indicator would be of any value to anyone and mentioned a few times when I thought it would be helpful.

I NEVER said anything about a SHIFT indicator, what do ya think...I'm redlining the tach because I'm to stupid to know when it's time to shift gears? I said a GEAR indicator, a simple number I could take a glance at if I wasn't sure what gear I was in. And yes I know what the hell the tach is for, duh.

Thanks for the support from many of you, obviously you read my original post and were smart enough to understand what my question was. The rest of you can stare at your coolant temp or your average speed on the DIC because those are both VERY valuable information you can't live without.

For the record, my original anger was a result of so many people that PM'ed me that are actually afraid to agree with me in an open forum for fear of being insulted like I was.

[brandotron]

I love the amount of shit flying around in this thread

[SoFlaZ]

I'd suggest get louder mufflers so you can actually hear the engine then you might realize the rpm's lol. My friends dad is old school and hasn't driven stick since the days of the four spd manuals lol and when he drives my friends manual car he doesnt ever use fifth at all. We all make mistakes. My cavalier has a shift light even, for fuel economy, but it still does its job when im on the phone and forget about 5th gear.

[drperry]

Originally Posted by SoFlaZ

I'd suggest get louder mufflers so you can actually hear the engine then you might realize the rpm's lol. My friends dad is old school and hasn't driven stick since the days of the four spd manuals lol and when he drives my friends manual car he doesnt ever use fifth at all. We all make mistakes. My cavalier has a shift light even, for fuel economy, but it still does its job when im on the phone and forget about 5th gear.

My shift light turns off if I use more than 1/4 - 1/2 throttle or go above 3000 RPM's

Though, I do admit, an adjustable shift light and gear indicator would be handy on the rare occasion someone else drives my car...

[Thrillz]

Originally Posted by Russ Hunsaker

Is it just me or do any of you 6 speed owners see a need for a gear indicator that would tell you what gear you are in? I don't drive my Camaro as a daily driver so maybe it is because I don't drive the car all the time, but often I find myself only in 4th gear instead of 5th or 6th gear. The car just runs so easy at 70MPH in 4th gear I always seem to forget to upshift into 5th or 6th. I also find myself in stop and go traffic kind of loosing track of what gear I'm in, or I find myself shifting from 3rd into 6th because I think I am in
5th gear instead of 3rd gear.

Like I said, maybe it's just because I don't drive the car very often. Or that I usually have the sunroof open and the radio volume up really loud and I'm not listening to the engine speed. But I often find myself wondering what gear I'm in. Last week I drove the car about 30 miles at 70MPH and didn't realize that I had been in 4th gear the entire time until I down shifted when I was exiting the highway.

I'm not new to owning a stick shift, I have owned several manual transmission vehicles but all of them were 4 speeds so you didn't have a problem knowing what gear you were in like with my 6 speed Camaro.

Russ

[CamaroFemme]

Originally Posted by Dan3

The manual tranny does have one. You've probably seen it, it looks kinda like...
1..3. .5..R
|--|--|--'
2..4. .6


So... your argument is

1. You clearly don't even understand my argument, so please refrain from calling it stupid.

2. You JUST posted how we should stop "escalating the situation."

[Foster26]

Again, I AGREE with you and think the indicator would not add any realizeable cost to the car, nor would it be any more trivial than some of the other "useless" information offered.

Someone said it IS necessary to have 2 ways to know your speed, the speedo and the DIC--because the speedo is difficult to read. This pretty much makes the speedo useless, not necessary.

I would be willing to bet that at least half of the chastisers on this thread have been in a gear that they didn't realize they were in. If they say they haven't, well I guess they just didn't notice.

[dmo]

Originally Posted by Russ Hunsaker

OMG some of you are really something. I DON'T have a problem knowing the gear pattern. I simply thought instead of having some worthless information on the DIC like average speed, or coolant temp it would be convenient to me to have a gear indicator. I have been driving a manual transmission longer than many of you have even been alive. How can a simple question turn into this stupidity? Like I'm sitting on the highway not knowing what gear I'm in all the time....I like to drive with the radio up loud and the sun roof open so I can't hear the engine speed. I mentioned driving for a long time in 4th gear instead of 6th, it happened ONCE! I have at times shifted into the wrong gear because I wasn't sure what gear I was in, but obviously very few have ever done this. It sounds like all of you professional "shifters" are just to damn smart to ever do anything like that. It has happened to me maybe 3 times in 2500 miles, it's not an every day thing and I haven't done it in several weeks. Now that I know to listen to the motor, watch the tach, and the other suggestions I'm sure it will never happen to me again.

Dan3- I didn't ask for an "idiot light" to tell me when to shift. Where in my original post did I even imply that was a problem? I simply asked if a gear indicator would be of any value to anyone and mentioned a few times when I thought it would be helpful.

I NEVER said anything about a SHIFT indicator, what do ya think...I'm redlining the tach because I'm to stupid to know when it's time to shift gears? I said a GEAR indicator, a simple number I could take a glance at if I wasn't sure what gear I was in. And yes I know what the hell the tach is for, duh.

Thanks for the support from many of you, obviously you read my original post and were smart enough to understand what my question was. The rest of you can stare at your coolant temp or your average speed on the DIC because those are both VERY valuable information you can't live without.

For the record, my original anger was a result of so many people that PM'ed me that are actually afraid to agree with me in an open forum for fear of being insulted like I was.

GET EM RUSS!!! GET EM!!!

[Thrillz]

Originally Posted by Russ Hunsaker

Is it just me or do any of you 6 speed owners see a need for a gear indicator that would tell you what gear you are in? I don't drive my Camaro as a daily driver so maybe it is because I don't drive the car all the time, but often I find myself only in 4th gear instead of 5th or 6th gear. The car just runs so easy at 70MPH in 4th gear I always seem to forget to upshift into 5th or 6th. I also find myself in stop and go traffic kind of loosing track of what gear I'm in, or I find myself shifting from 3rd into 6th because I think I am in
5th gear instead of 3rd gear.

Like I said, maybe it's just because I don't drive the car very often. Or that I usually have the sunroof open and the radio volume up really loud and I'm not listening to the engine speed. But I often find myself wondering what gear I'm in. Last week I drove the car about 30 miles at 70MPH and didn't realize that I had been in 4th gear the entire time until I down shifted when I was exiting the highway.

I'm not new to owning a stick shift, I have owned several manual transmission vehicles but all of them were 4 speeds so you didn't have a problem knowing what gear you were in like with my 6 speed Camaro.

Russ

[Captain Awesome]

Originally Posted by Foster26

Again, I AGREE with you and think the indicator would not add any realizeable cost to the car, nor would it be any more trivial than some of the other "useless" information offered.

Someone said it IS necessary to have 2 ways to know your speed, the speedo and the DIC--because the speedo is difficult to read. This pretty much makes the speedo useless, not necessary.

I would be willing to bet that at least half of the chastisers on this thread have been in a gear that they didn't realize they were in. If they say they haven't, well I guess they just didn't notice.

Hey, I freely admit to occasionally going into the wrong gate once or twice. Especially when I moved from my well broken in 2000 SS M6 to my new and freshly minted 2010 2SS M6...

But....

I basically INSTANTLY knew by the feel that I screwed up, and corrected myself.

If there was some kind of indicator, I certaintly WOULD NOT frantically scan my instrument panel like Kahn Noonian Singh looking for the deflector shield override after every shift to check and see that I got it right.