Opels are the same. It was embarrassing asking the Hertz guy at the Duesseldorf airport how to get the car into reverse. :smack:
Even some US domestic vehicles have that pattern. Large Ford trucks, like F-350s have it, and have no button to push or anything else to keep you from going straight into reverse when you’re driving down the road.
Modern Porsches have the same pattern as the OP.
Years ago I drove a friend’s truck with a manual trans, and there was no synchro on first gear. At a dead stop, you had to briefly put the truck into second gear to bring the gearbox’s input shaft to a dead stop, and only then could you put the truck in first. It would not have been possible to put the truck into first gear while the vehicle was rolling forward, unless you were clutch-out and rolling at the exact right speed for a zero-load engagement.
These large Ford trucks you mentioned - I’m guessing they have no synchro on the reverse gear, so that it would be just about impossible to engage reverse while the vehicle is moving forward?
I’ve got a G35 Coupe with the 6-speed manual. This is the config:
1-3-5
2-4-6>R
You have to press down on the shifter and while it’s depressed, slide it to the right. I believe the difference between my tranny and the OP’s is that the OP’s was an older 4-speed trans updated to use more another gear when 5-speeds became the new norm for better performance (including fuel economy), and to do it, the gearset was expanded, but the optimum, from-scratch design could not be used.
First gear on a lot of old trucks was a super-low “granny gear”, which was intended for pulling stumps and the like. They assumed for just toodling around town, you’d start out in 2nd. Some trucks are even labeled like this, with the lowest forward gear labeled “L” and the 2nd one lableled “1”. That might have something to do with why the shifter pattern is like that too.
I’ve owned a number of VWs. The shift pattern on each was different.
'73 Karmann-Ghia
1 3
│ │
├───┼───┤
│ │ │
R 2 4
'81 Vanagon
R 1 3
│ │ │
├───┼───┤
│ │
2 4
'84 Quantum
1 3 5
│ │ │
├───┼───┤
│ │ │
2 4 R
'94 Cabriolet
R 1 3 5
│ │ │ │
├───┼───┼───┤
│ │
2 4
2004 Passat (okay - not all were different.)
1 3 5
│ │ │
├───┼───┤
│ │ │
2 4 R
The Ghia was twelve years old by the time it got to me, and had been driven by my Father and older brother. If you weren’t careful, you could accidentally shift into reverse when trying to go into second
It’s possible that it wouldn’t go all the way into R, but you can grind it and that’s frustrating enough. I’m actually only familiar with one Ford like this, it’s about a 2005 or 2006 model we have at work that I have to drive about once a month and it’s really hard to feel out first gear. I always put it in second, then go straight up.