Anyone else find 3rd gear redundant?
 

First car with a 6 speed box, and after a year and a half I have to say that the idea is kinda silly. The car has enough torque not to need 6 torque multiplying values on any kind of a regular basis.

For day to day driving, with shift points at 5500 rpm, the most effective shift pattern seems to be 1-2-4-6. the 2-4 shift has become so much the norm that I do it pretty much subconscious now.

Was wondering if anyone else had come to the same conclusion.

The gears are close ratio for a reason.. Let's you keep the engines rpm's on full boil when you up shift.. You must be milking it for MPG's if you are skipping gears.

Day to day driving shifting at 5500 rpm??

What is silly about a close ratio 6 speed transmission? Especially for a car with as narrow a powerband as ours...

Why buy a sports car if all you want to do is keep the car at the lowest cruising rpm's as possible? There are far more fuel efficient (econobox) cars on the market these days...

EDIT: After rereading the OP, I'm even more confused.

So what you are telling us, is that you are revving the car through the torque dip and then upshifting shortly after the revs get out of the torque dip (5500), skipping a gear in the proccess so that the revs drops down to cruising rpm's (around 2000)? And you do this from gears 2-4, and then again from gears 4-6? The fuck?

This makes no sense at all. For cruising, you should be upshifting between 2500-3300 rpm's, to the next gear (no skipping). For spirited driving or accelerating to merge/pass, you should be revving higher than 5500 rpm's (peak torque @6600 rpm's and peak horsepower @7000 rpm's) before upshifting to the next gear (no skipping).

The only time I could see skipping gears as being justified would be after merging/passing, at which point you'd skip to final gear (6th) to get into cruising rpm once you're at your desired speed/no longer accelerating. Even in this sort of situation though, I still run my car through the rest of the gears...

This thread... lol...

EDIT 2: My bad. Shifting from 2-4 and 4-6 at 5500 rpm's puts you right back at the beginning of the torque dip at 3000-ish rpm's, not 2000-ish.

There are other threads about the possible wear and tear on the gearbox from skip shifting. But I agree ... I also get "lazy" and will skip a gear or two on the upshift .... on those mundane work commutes. If I'm having fun with the car .... I never skip gears.

I'm pretty sure the Subaru/Toyota engineers have put down more than enough thoughts on every components of this car.

I find the versatility of a six speed very appealing. Nothing silly about it. Yes you can skip gears if you are trying to save fuel and be lazy...
I rarely use the brakes when coming to a stop. I find third gear very useful in traffic.
And if you are shifting at 5500 rpm's you are aggressive to say the least.

I'm almost always in 3rd in residential areas (40-50KPH). I also find it's also the most satisfying gear to shift into, very little resistance ans super positive, straight through motion.

I only use 3rd gear. I don't like the others.

downshifting and engine braking dictates 3rd gear. Not going to dump into 2nd into a turn going 50MPH.

This...

I don't wear the helmet and fire-suit to work either, just doing the mindless commute thing 99% of the time. I live in Southern Ontario where curves and Unicorns have the same level of abundance.

I am not really an avid consumer of speedometer data, but 3000-3500 rpm seems to be the cruise spot for my travels and I can do it by sound rather than looking at a gauge; that's 4th at about 75-80 km/hr. The described shift points seem to keep me in that zone. Despite what the anti-fan boys say about the Twins, the car is not really torque challenged. You should try driving the 948cc Bugeye if you really want to know where a shift matters!

Speed limits in your area may not utilize 3rd gear much, but there's an entire world out there. I personally use 3rd a lot, occasionally i skip it, or another gear depending on how traffic is moving.

The gear spread at low rpm is almost always very close with a 6sp, sometimes the difference is only 200-300 RPM. Higher rpm is where the spread widens considerably, and is where the gear spacing is near perfect and the car really comes to life.

The car isn't torque challenged for commuting, you're correct. Between 3500-4500 rpm however, there is a noticeable sag in forward thrust and tighter gearing makes sense for the 4500+ range when you're actually enjoying the car.

I don't see a poll, but I use 3rd gear often, especially at the track.

shift points at 5500 rpm

Huh?