Reverse Gear

JP08

Just come back off holiday where we had a hire car, which on arrival turned out to be a Nissan Micra. For once this is not a complaint about hire car companies or unfair charges, just an observation.

The gearbox went in standard pattern

1 3 5
2 4 R

but for the first time in many many years there was nothing to stop you accidentally engaging reverse (ie lift something or push down on the gearstick). Even in those older cars, reverse was to the left of 1st.
And yes, at 120kph on the AutoRoute I did go for sixth as per the daily driver. And lo, an unhappy mechanical noise did emanate. Fortunately I wasn't accelerating hard and put no force behind the change, so it didn't engage. Judging by the graunchiness of the box and the difficulty of getting reverse to engage I'm guessing that I was not the first person to do this in the car's 20kkm life.

But it left me wondering how many modern cars are designed like this? Or was something broken on this one?

Axial

I've got a 2007 Fiesta, and you can't go from 5th into Reverse, you'd have to bring the lever back into the middle in neutral then back across and down to put it in reverse, if you lift the gator you can see there's a plastic piece that blocks reverse when you go into 5th.

However my father has a 2013 Fiesta and that doesn't have this mechanism, and you can accidentally hit reverse when coming out of 5th, its quite easy to do as well unless you flick out of 5th and let it find the centre before going into 4th

[Deleted User]

6 Speed Toyota and reverse is easily selected for the inexperience or unwary.

agrinnall

Axial wrote: »

However my father has a 2013 Fiesta and that doesn't have this mechanism, and you can accidentally hit reverse when coming out of 5th, its quite easy to do as well unless you flick out of 5th and let it find the centre before going into 4th

Well I have had the latest model Fiesta since 2012 (2 cars) and have driven around 70,000 miles. I have never had any hint of going into reverse from 5th, I suspect either there is a fault with the particular car or that driver error may be the issue.

JP08

treboeth wrote: »

6 Speed Toyota and reverse is easily selected for the inexperience or unwary.

Really - on the Auris (6 speed) it is to the left of first and you have to pull up a little collar to get it to go over there. No way you do that accidentally.

[Deleted User]

JP08 wrote: »

Really - on the Auris (6 speed) it is to the left of first and you have to pull up a little collar to get it to go over there. No way you do that accidentally.

Try the MR2 box, personally have never done it(touches wood) buy quite a few have.

There is even a reversing beeper installed as standard

Strider590

I suspect most Micra never see 4th or 5th, nevermind a 6th.