Quote:
Originally Posted by Dadhawk
I agree with this! Of course, it does switch to displaying the gears if you up/down shift while in D, which is nice so 99% of the time I would want the information I'm downshifting anyway so it appears, and stays that way.
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Yes, but this only tells us what gear we are ending up in after-the-fact. When cruising along the AT computer will get to 6th gear very early for best fuel economy( lowest rpm) for the condions. The reason for wanting to know the gear we are in when in "D" is that when wanting to accelerate there is value in knowing the gear you are in so that you make a more informed decision about what gear you want to downshift to. This allows selection of the apprpriate part of the torque band for the situation demanding acceleration. Unless you press the accelerator enough to trigger the computer downshift, the car will accelerate in the gear it is in which may be less efficient and provide inadequate response for the conditions.
One could say, just drive in manual mode all the time if you think you smarter than the computer!
I make the request more from the perspective that including the readout I suggest gives the operator more flexible control within the "D" mode allowing use of the engine in the proper area of the torque band relative to "drivers" assessment of what is needed. To my point, ther may circumstances where you may not necessarily need/want more throttle, just more torque and hence a different rpm/ gear for the same throttle position.