It's exactly the same on my 1.2L 16v clio ....
It's not a problem because it's not an highway car, but it would be better if I was at 3000 at 130km/h
With my old twingo, it was the reverse problem, the 5th gear was veryyyyy long !
But there are many cause of those short gear-box:
- The car 's weight in general increase
- Those motors are 16v, so you get the max torque 1 or 2 thousand rpm higher than in 8v motors
- So they put shorter gear box to have power, it's one of the principal, maybe THE principal default of fuel motors compare to diesel.
But this problem will be solve in futur-generation fuel motors, because turbo will be generalize on those motors as it is on diesel.
For exemple the futur 1.2L turbo 100bhp or the 1.5L turbo etc
Those motors will permit to have more torque, at a better RPM, less fuel consomption due to the smaller size (1.2L instead of 1.4L for exemple) and so a longer final gear and more silence, it's named the "Down-sizing"
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Fan renault et renaultF1