Can anybody explain the meaning of 'overdrive' in the expression: 'manual transmission with overdrive' please?

Thanks
Mxctrl(1999SE,5sp,FSB,K&N)

 

Fifth gear is known as overdrive or highway gear....just a guess.

 

Yeah. The fifth gear is overdrive on a manual transmission.

 

n/m

 

To make it sound better than a "regular" manual trannie!
BTW I really dislike used car salesmen.....
Like lawyers....
and the kids who work in car stereo shops who know nothing, but try to convince you that they do.
(Sorry, getting on a rant again)

 

Overdrive, higher gearing, better MPG on the freeway.

 

is when the gear ratio is less than 1:1

 

ding ding ding...

BTW you can actually have a car with more than one overdrive gear...

 

how how how??? i want fifth gear sooo bad. without rebuilding the tranny nor getting a new one.. how much??

well as far as the O/D question. for us max owners we only got 4 gears. od being the fourth. suxhuh?

 

I don't know if an automatic with five gears would make a big difference. If you think about it though, the auto comes with a torque lockup converter. That kind of acts as a fifth gear, but not really i guess.

 

4th is direct drive 1:1,
5th and 6th are both overdriven.

Took some getting used to when the car was new. I would go 1,2,3,4,5. Ok, all done. Then about 2 miles later, "Ooops", I forgot about 6th".