I'm sorry if this comes across as a dumb question, but I need to ask it. I have never personally driven a 6-Speed. What are the major advantages to this? Can you stay in each of the previous 5 gears longer? When exactly do you drop into 6th (60+ mph)? Is dropping into 5th, like dropping into 4th in a 5-Speed? Please help, I would like to understand this better.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=88963
i asked the same question starting in the middle of page 2. you can read people's answers.

 

I read all 9 pages and still really couldn't come up with answers to my questions. Most of it was about how much faster (or not) the Maxima was than the Altima. I want to know the details about driving a 6-Speed vs. 5-Speed.

 

You are in each gear for less time and thus closer to the peal power of the engine longer. Theres no mystery about it, instead of having 5 gears there are 6. Just like back in the 80s lots of cars had 4 gears instead of 5 and in the 70s lots of cars have 3 gears instead of 4.

 

Except in this case Nissan basically added an extra overdrive. The first 5 gears are basically the same as the 5 speed from the other gens. 6th is a Highway cruising gear.

Stereodude

 

I heard that 1,2,3 are the same but 4 and 5 are shorter than on the 5 speeds? Anyways I was just relaying the general concept to him so as not to confuse him with different 6 speed designs. If Nissan didn't change the 1-5 ratios that's just dumb.

 

i asked "what are the benefits of having 6 speeds?" and some people answered. didnt mean to make you read all that nonsense.

 

In gears 1-5 of the 6 speed, the ratios are extremely close to the orginal 5 speed in the early 5th and 4th gen models. The advantage of a "deeper" gearing really isn't the there plus the 2k2 already has plenty of torque (ie it really doesn't need any more torque multiplication fom gearing). 6th gear is just a nice overdrive. In the 3.0 VQs, the 6th gear might be a little too tall, but since the 2k2 has so much torque it can probably easily pull 6th at moderate throttle from 70mph on.

I find it funny that Nissan advertizes the 6 speed as close ratio, when the 5 speeds have nearly the same gearing. The manuals come with 3.8X series gears which is a pretty deep gear for a family hauler. Just for reference, the Mustang GT/Cobra comes with 3.27s and the 6 speed C5/F-Body comes with 3.42s. Of course these cars have a lot more torque than the Max, but it just shows all manual Maximas do come with aggressive gearing. I believe the M3 has a 4.2X gears. That's pretty stout. Of course it revs out to 8000rpms so it can make use out of all that gear. A Maxima with 4 series gears would be overgeared (ie it would accelerate to quickly thru it's powerband).


Dave

 

Thanks, I think I understand better now. Basically, my assumption that you really don't use 6th until very high speeds was correct. Upwards of 70 mph was mentioned. Still, I think I need to go test drive one just so I can say I drove one. Until, I can get mine that is.