[justcarkits]

Wonderful car the Eos (well with a few quirks - clonk, rattle, rattle).

Having owned an Eos for the last 3 months, really struggling to understand why they bothered fitting a 6 speed box (naturally most new cars have 6 speeds). Drove a Golf for quite a few years with a nice 5 speed box, which was infinitely better for "driving".

Would normally consider top gear to be an "overdrive" for motorway cruising, but the 6th gear simply doesn't reduce revs enough for a tall gear.
Round town it's such a nuisance to approach a junction and go through the gears (before the junction arrives). Block changing is also a pain, as it frequently ends up in wrong gear.

You can, however, use 6th at 30MPH - why ? Is the compromise so that VW could get the Co2 emissions lower for the Urban test, as it's useless for the Motorway test..

Anyone have any views ?

 

[cb391]

I would suggest that you check the VW website where you are and see if you can get specs for the transmission. I looked on the US site and the numbers don't seem right. They have the ratios reversed for 4th and 5th gears. I have a clipping that says the manual has overdrive in 5th and 6th. The VW site says only in 6th. The DSG has overdrive in 4th through 6th gears and the ratios are different between the DSG used in the 2.0 and the 3.2. The theory is the more gears you have engine performance can be made more efficient at different speed points. Overdrive helps lower engine RPM at higher driving speeds to improve fuel mileage. Also of note is the overdrive ratios will be lower numerically as axle ratio numbers go up. This helps improve acceleration while keeping fuel mileage up.

 

[BobP]

My previous car, an RX-8, was 6-speed and I found it useful for cruising on motorways to help the rather dire mpg of the rotary engine.

I've never found block changing a problem as the gear lever is spring loaded to the central gate, so 6th to 4th is easy.

The DSG just does its own thing and being in 6th at 40mph isn't unusual.

 

[Eos_Up]

Mileage, mileage, mileage. Fleet averages have to be higher as the years go by. While I don't know for sure, perhaps the 6th gear increases the MPG by 1. If your question is about 6 gears in the stick edition, you have more of a point. I would think driving a stick in traffic, you would seldom ever get above 4th gear while with an auto, who cares?

It also probably reduces the Co2 emissions lower as you pointed out.

As I have an auto, I think the transmission is great. The trend is toward autos with 6, 7 or even 8 gears just to get a little more mileage.

 

[justcarkits]

Manual transmission (stick, as you put it). Just seems very pointless having a 6th gear that is not really any higher than 5th. Really don't get much benefit as regards MPG when cruising @ 70MPH down the motorway (legal limit in UK).
Given that petrol is close to £ 5 a gallon in the UK (approx $8.80) more mileage would be welcome, hence the need for a taller 6th.

 

[Eos_Up]

6th gear in auto

While it's hard to be very exact, today I did a test in "manual" auto. It appears the the RPM drops about 200 RPM at the same speed (45MPH) when shifting to 6th from 5th.

I don't know what the manual RPM drop would be, but it's probably similar. From what I can tell, both 5th and 6th are overdrive gears for non-performance driving.

Since I have the auto, I don't much care. If I had the manual, I probably wouldn't spend much time in either of these gears unless I was cruising on the interstate.

The problem I have is when I'm in auto, I can't tell what gear I'm in unless I go into manual auto mode. When I'm in drive, the annunciator to the right of "D" is blank unlike the manual that shows a lighted window with the actual gear that is engaged.

I complained about this at my dealer and was told that the US models got some kind of firmware update which "turned" the annunciator off.

 

[pdog]

I did a couple of tests today at 60mph & 70mph, the results I got are as follows

60mph 400rpm difference between 5th/6th gears

70mph 600rpm difference between 5th/6th gears

pdog

 

[Eos_Up]

An interesting test would be to check the gas mileage difference in 5th and 6th at say 60 mph with the trip computer. However to get any meaningful data, each run would have to be on a level highway with cruise control engaged and probably at least 5 minutes or better yet, 10 minutes.

 

[neh321]

Manual transmission (stick, as you put it). Just seems very pointless having a 6th gear that is not really any higher than 5th. Really don't get much benefit as regards MPG when cruising @ 70MPH down the motorway (legal limit in UK).
Given that petrol is close to £ 5 a gallon in the UK (approx $8.80) more mileage would be welcome, hence the need for a taller 6th.

Think it's really all about marketing.
Motor mags mark any car down that "only" has a 5-speed box. 6 are essential to get those 5 stars.

Now of course some makers are fitting a 7-speed box and didn't I read somewhere Merc are fitting an 8-speed auto? Who's going to be first with a 9-speeder?!

 

[bneeos]

Having owned 3 and 4 speed autos its easy to appreciate 6 speed autos. Smoother and better on fuel economy.

 

[boac69]

Lexus already have an 8 speed auto in the L460, and according to VW driver mag VW are working on DSG boxes with up to 10 speeds, where will it all end ???

On the last manual I drove I regulary forgot to put it in 5th, dont know how I would cope with 6 or more on the floor.

I have been an auto convert since I spent time living and working in the USA where auto is the norm and stick shift is special request territory often at no extra cost ? they have the best competetive market to buy cars in terms of price and choice.

 

[doregan]

I have a 2007 6-speed Eos.

I have driven stick most of my life, from my 1961 Beetle trough the Eos. My last stick, which I sold in December 2018, was a sweet Karmann Ghia cabriolet. Let me tell you, when you are doing 60 mph in its fourth and last geer, you long for at least one more higher gear just to ratchet down the noise. I would keep reaching fo the stick to shift into fourth but I was already there.

 

[voxmagna]

My answer to this question has some thinking and I asked a similar question a few years ago when I decided to change my driving habits:

A lot depends on what engine type and the answers may be different. MY07EOS is the manual Tdi sport stick change. I have a DPF () and I think it's important to maintain high exhaust gas temperatures through the first section from the turbo through the DPF. That's not just for times when there's a dpf regeneration, but where possible during normal driving. DPF clog with soot and MIL light on is an expensive repair for diesel car owners.

Most modern turbos don't start to do much or generate engine torque until they reach equivalent engine speeds of around 2k rpm. In fact, a requirment for the dpf to regenerate is mph above 40 mph and engine rpm >2k. Battery charging is also better at 2K so that has now become my driving sweet spot around town.

I changed my driving style to always keep the tacho around 2k, including my local city driving. That means when I'm keeping to city speed limits, I'm rarely out of 3rd gear. At the time I wondered what 4th, 5th and 6th gear were for!! I can now monitor my exhaust gas temperature inside the cabin and my guess at 2K rpm was about right. Then I started doing some fuel consumption checks at 70 mph when either 5th or 6th gear could be selected. I did this on long straight level sections of road with cruise engaged and watching the real time consumption display. The fuel consumption at constant speed was slightly better in 5th gear. But the results worsen if you maintain the constant speed into a headwind in 6th gear.

Many VW's have the small indicator in the cockpit recommending when to up/down shift. I ignore it because it doesn't fit with my tests or results. I think it is just a simple algorithm based on what they think is best. They could have done more vwith it and used the real time fuel consumption as an input? So far I have not had the common soot clogging in my EGR that others have had and I would expect less.

 

[silvershadow]

When topics like this arise, I am glad we live in a country location and do most of our driving at highway speeds [100/110km/hour unfortunately due to our "nanny state" speed limits] plus our shortest trips are 30 minutes or more so DPF clogging and regeneration has never been an issue in the almost 9 years that SWMBO has owned her car.

For me, a 6th or higher gear in Australia is a necessity to minimise "highway hypnosis" especially for the sections of the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory which currently have no absolute speed limits and there is nothing better than passing the occasional highway police car at 160+km/hr knowing they will not harass you unless you do something stupid.

Unfortunately, self-appointed "road safety experts" in the Territory are continually advocating the imposition of absolute speed limits with limited success on some tourist roads where international visitors from countries north of Australia who have never or rarely driven above 80km/hr have had fatal accidents from not knowing when to start turning into corners when travelling at high speed and ended up in a roadside ditch or wrapped around a tree. The road from Uluru to Alice Springs and sections of the Suart Highway south of Darwin are examples of good high-speed roads which had a low accident rate before tourism increased that have been afflicted with a speed limit for this reason.

.

 

[aku-aku]

Many VW's have the small indicator in the cockpit recommending when to up/down shift. I ignore it because it doesn't fit with my tests or results. I think it is just a simple algorithm based on what they think is best. They could have done more vwith it and used the real time fuel consumption as an input? So far I have not had the common soot clogging in my EGR that others have had and I would expect less.

I suspect the upshift/downshift indicator will be designed so as to not be too intrusive - on a calm day and a straight, flat stretch of road, you can easily shift up to 6th around 40mph (60km/h) and be doing a hundred mpg (40km/l) - but the moment you get a bend, a hill or a bit of wind, you'll need to shift up a couple of gears because there's no power at little over idle revs - but jumping between 6th and 4th isn't convenient, so I guess they wouldn't advise that. A DSG probably wouldn't want to be jumping around that much either...?

 

[voxmagna]

There are so many variables, including the passenger weight load and I haven't found the up/downshift indicator that smart. I look at the tacho in 5th and 6th. If the rpm is changing for fairly consistent throttle or I feel the engine is laboring I'll drop from 6th to 5th. Silvershadow made some good points and I think for us in U.K with legal maximum speed limits of 70 mph, 6th gear is just too high to keep the torque on and 5th is just a little low and noisier but without laboring. I monitor my first stage EG sensor temperature real time and faced with a shift decision, I will choose best mpg and hottest exhaust.

I've been studying my diesel dpf regen.behaviour over several months. Their regen. algorithm isn't just based on mileage, speed, dpf pressure drop, or time. It also seems related to how much heat is sustained in outgoing exhaust. I think keeping the exhaust hotter seems increase time between dpf regens.

I can see if you are allowed to legally drive at over 150km/h, sixth gear would be appropriate.