I just feel like Honda seriously messed up with the way the gear ratios are set. I feel that there isn't a big enough spread between 5th and 6th. I just would imagine that 6th would serve as more of an over drive gear and there by enable much better highway mileage and not be so horribly noisy. Also just being pick but first is also a little low as well. I'd like to hear others opinions on this.

 

In my opinion, 6th gear is a joke - a gimmick. Useless.


Really no reason for them to have added one, as it serves no purpose but to aggravate me.

 

It used to be 5th gear was your overdrive gear w/4th gear being your 1:1 - so is 5th gear your 1:1 or do you have 2 overdrive gears? That would be nice if 6th was like a .53:1 or something for interstate cruising

 

I'd love to know what all the gear ratios are. I agree with andrew that it could use 2 over drive gears after all this is a economy car. I honestly almost always skip 5th and go right to 6th.

 

There are several posts addressing this issue. Bottom line - 6th gear should be much taller. That would take care of the noise, and increase fuel efficiency as well as putting less wear and tear on the engine.

 

From the Honda.com website:

Gear ratios, 2013 Fit 5-speed manual
1st: 3.308
2nd: 1.870
3rd: 1.303
4th: 0.949
5th: 0.727

Gear ratios, 2015 Fit 6-speed manual
1st: 3.462
2nd: 1.870
3rd: 1.235
4th: 0.949
5th: 0.810
6th: 0.727

Note fourth and fifth gear ratios of the 2013 and the fourth and sixth ratios for 2015. THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. What Honda did was throw a 4.5 gear in the 2015.

So IMHO anyway what you’re getting with a 2015 Fit manual is the old five-speed manual with a 4.5 gear thrown in for god knows what reason, probably cost. It sucks, and it's the main reason why I very well could wind up going the CVT route. Again IMHO, Honda really blew it.

 

There was some dude on here who found and installed a new gear set to make 6th gear an overdrive cruising gear. Basically the gearset is what the transmission SHOULD have been. My guess is Honda designed around the engine power curve and market, with cost being first considered.


heres the thread. https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...o-h-drive.html

 

All it means is now, when the engine falls off the powerband on a hill, I will now have to downshift two gears instead of one.


I loved the five speed in my '09. I'm reserving judgment for now, but it seems that the 6-speed was more a marketing decision than an engineering one.

 

Agree it could use a taller 6th. gear... I was driving a 2006 Scion XB 5 sp. had it from new (131K miles very reliable car). It was very much the same way. But I screamed it down the 4 lane 30 miles to and from work every day. Routinely at 65-80mph and got 29 -31 mpg. My 2015 LX seems a bit better. It not fully broken in by any means but cruises nicely at 60 -70 mph. Personally I think to much is made of the engine noise... It's not a limo. That all being said a higher 6th gear would make a lot of sense. Maybe it is a physical size thing or maybe Honda was being lazy... I like the LX manual it works good for me

 

I do love my EX 6MT too. Yes I was a little disappointed that the 6th gear was not taller than the fifth gear in the previous generations however we are only dealing with a hundred and thirty horsepower...at a higher rpm thsn most driving conditions. it could have been somewhat of a marketing decision and engineering. If 6th gear were taller, basically you cannot stay in 6th gear for very long due to the lack of horsepower in the lower band. Its a 1.5L DI motor. I doubt the CVT model stays above the manual's 6th gear ratio for very long when driving. I can imagine shifting between 5th and 6th a lot, which is cool by me but unfortunately a FIT is not an S2000. :-(

 

Personally I think to much is made of the engine noise... It's not a limo....

Lol, my last car was a Mustang with 4.10 gears and dual borla exhaust, by comparison the Fit is whisper quiet.... My 2011 turns 2600 ish rpm at 75mph which isn't bad, the Mustang was over 3k at that speed, between the gears and the exhaust drone it was mind numbing

 

Reevaluate those gear ratios with two or three of your buddies in the car and a trunk load of beer/steaks/paintball gear/tools...
Now you need to downshift on the hills and those closely spaced top gears start to make sense.

 

You paintball huh? Me too! I do mostly scenario now, my airball competition days are way behind me now. I know exactly what you mean. With a payload if the 6th gear was taller, forget it, it would be unusable as you simply do not have enough horsepower in the powerband below 3k. if we were talking a 2.0L and say 160-195HP then I'd say you can have a taller 6th gear running around 2600rpms with a full payload. The FIT just isn't designed like that.

 

I think you're right, at Christmas I traveled through the mountains in VA with the family in the car, the dog in the back and a hard shell carrier on the roof and the at times the transmission would downshift from 5-4-3 at like 70mph the little motor was screaming at over 5k - bear in mind this isn't the new fit that you guys have but a 2011 auto, so I realize its different car motor tranny etc, but a little motor does get taxed pretty quickly on the freeway- I forget living in Savannah where the biggest hills we have are the ones the ants make

 

Encountered the same thing on a recent trip through some hilly parts of California. Downshifting from sixth to fifth made no difference, and skipping a gear was necessary to keep momentum. I also tend to skip fifth when gathering speed.


It's one of the things that ticks me off the most about the Fit. The sixth gear serves absolutely purpose except as a marketing ploy. The six-speed manual in the Hyundai Accent is much better spaced and is what the Fit should've been. Amongst all of the manuals I've ever driven, the Fit's gearing is about the worst

 

As I have said before, the ratio chosen for 6th gear is one low enough to not require a downshift on a mild grade.

The reasoning is that owners and, more importantly, reviewers would perceive a downshift under these conditions as an indication that the car is underpowered. They'd say "The Fit is gutless" and drive buyers away.

This isn't uncommon. A lot of econoboxes have about 20MPH per 1000RPM in top gear. No manufacturer is willing to give their customers a truly functional overdrive for fear of comparison with competitors.

So, why a 6-speed? Very simple, because manual transmission fans have a fixation that more is better. It's like in This is Spinal Tap, "But this one goes up to 11, that's one better than 10!"

In this case they are wrong, since all they get from this 6-speed is more need to shift. Modern powerbands are quite wide so there is really no need to row the gearbox so much to keep the engine at its power peak.

Old VW beetles had a reduction range of 14.6 to 3.60 with four gears. Even with much less power there was no perception of a big gap between gears. The tires make 795 revolutions per mile.

The new Fit has a reduction range of 16.0 to 3.36 with six gears. The tires make 850 revolutions per mile.

Compensate for the difference in rolling circumference and you'll find that the engine revolutions per mile are exactly the same for a old VW bug and a brand new Fit in top gear! Such progress in the last 40 years!

 

I've been saying since 2011 that the Fit doesn't need a 6th gear. I'm pretty sure George is right in saying they just added it for marketing.

They could have made a longer final drive and then everyone would be complaining that the car is even more gutless than it already is.

Compromises...

 

BUT THESE GO TO 11!!!

 

Its too bad really, driving in hilly terrain in 5th or even 4th gear I think would be accepted by most rational people (reviewers who think they should be able to accelerate up a mountain in 6th gear excluded) if once terrain flattened out they could shift back into 6th gear and cruise along at 2k rpms making 45 mpg or more, assuming the car has adequate power to propel itself through the wind drag at that speed

 

The next generation Fit: