1w ago

Those who drive stickshift, what is your most (and least) favorite reverse gear position?

Let's only focus on the reverse gear position, I believe there are as follow:

all the way to the right and down.
all the way to the right and up.
all the way to the left and up.
knob pull then shift to left and up.

For me, if I drive an old 5 speed then 1).

For modern cars with 6 speed, I prefer 4). It makes me feel confident that I am definitely in reverse.

A 6 speed with 3) imo is just terrible. I know many BMWs have this pattern. The idea is to really push to the left so you engage reverse and not 1st. Tried it on a friend's car and I was quite nervous: what happen if I yank too hard and damage the shifter?

30 comments

The unnamed International transmission in my dad's old dump truck has reverse completely to the left and down. Conveniently placing it right in the middle of your goddamn leg.
It might not have been located quite that far over when new but now you basically have to scooch over and hug the driver door whenever you're backing up at all.
Honorable mention to the 6sp ZF trans in my dad's F550 flatbed, where reverse is left-and-up, also putting it near your knees and also in nice range of the hanging keys out of the ignition to whack against it randomly.

Why do you care?

Been driving manual for 30 years plus. Also trained people to drive manual professionally. Don't care.

4 for sure. 1 is a pain in the ass when you get in a 5 speed and you’re used to something else. I subconsciously double-clutched once and almost released the clutch in reverse gear at 70 once with that.
- It's usually hard/impossible to pull a 6-speed shift on a 5-speed and go 5>R. I acknowledge there's improvements over time, but, what I know from my sample is: no synchro on reverse, so it'd take much more force to engage. I know my miata has a lockout plate so you must go N>R as it blocks 5>R, and still requiring a massive yank to get the transmission to agree to spool up the dogs to a negative 20,000rpm.
  Were you double clutching on an upshift?

I like VW's push in shift lever then left and up. I have yet to drive a six speed (soon though), but it works for me on a five speed so I have no reason to believe it will be different on a six.
- Have a six speed, can confirm it works the exact same.

My old transporter (and bug before that) had depress the stick then left then back.

Right and down is my favorite and I hate everything else. Had a five speed Honda and Toyota for a couple of decades and loved that setup.
Left and up is first gear, so I don't want anything to the left of that. To start moving I want the stick to be going the same direction as the car, so up to the left for forward and down to the right for reverse just makes sense to me. I think I drove a really old farm truck that had the pull up to put it in reverse and it was fine for that setting, but would have been annoying for a daily driver.

This is the shift pattern of the army deuce and a half trucks we had when I was in the army. Reverse was in kind of a weird place, until you got stuck in the mud and needed to rock back and forth, then it was nice.
- My mind is changed.
  The US Amry is good at designing things for my level of idiot.

Right and down

I like 3 but I had an e30 and I was always worried when someone else had to drive it that they'd fuck it up. To be fair there's like a notch and it requires real force to go into R but people manhandle things. 4 is more idiot resistant.
- When I worked as dealership valet without my own road experience, I always made sure to read the shift knob if I didn't know the car. So there's hope. But not everyone I worked with gave a shit

VW you push down and under 1St gear

what happen if I yank too hard and damage the shifter?
It's literally designed that way. You even answered it yourself:
The idea is to really push to the left so you engage reverse and not 1st.

Every car I have ever owned has been right and down. I am definitely accustomed to it now.
Once I drove a rental truck that was up and left. Just awful.

I have a newer Honda and the manual transmission is a dream but 6th gear is in exactly the same position as reverse, so the first time I threw it into reverse I nearly shit myself. Terrifying.
- My 8th gen Accord V6 6MT had the same pattern, I generally liked it a lot. The reverse gear is gated in some way such that it should not be possible to shift into reverse when traveling at speed. I don't ever remember accidentally going into 6th when I wanted to reverse. My muscle memory says that to shift into either I always just pushed as far to the right and down and trusted the car to put it into the correct gear.
  
  I trust it now, it was just the first couple of times that really freaked me out. My first car was a 3 speed, and not even hydraulic. The next a 4 speed, then a 5 speed (said 4 and "overdrive"), this is a 2014 I bought new and the first time I've had a 6 speed, first time there wasn't a dedicated spot for reverse.
  Overall this one is perfect though, so forgiving and easy to drive. Love it. All the tech I want and none of the tech I don't.

My last 6 speed was a combo of 1 and 4 sorta. All the way right and down position, but only accessible by pulling the collar on the shifter up. Maybe that's the same as the knob pull you're mentioning though.
I liked it though. Kept 1-6 in places that made sense, and never had an "oh fuck" moment going from 5-6 since reverse required the collar pull. It was a 2006 Tiburon Tuscani trim (US if that matters). RIP good buddy.
- I believe my Mazda speed3 was like this too.
  
  Speed3 is push down and all the way left then forward. Probably the most annoying option