2009 Nissan 370Z Long-Term Test - Edmunds.com

AK370Z · 03-30-2009, 12:12 AM

2009 Nissan 370Z Touring: Gear indicated

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I used to have a sportbike or two a while back. Riding on more than one occasion, I wouldn't know what gear I was in -- I wished for a gear indicator display. Well, today, several sportbikes have such a feature.

And it's especially nice on a motorbike because of the sequential 6-speed gearbox, the close ratios, and the extremely flexible engine. If you weren't paying close attention, it would be easy to forget where you were, particularly in the middle of the gearbox (3,4,5).

The car where this gear indicator display would come in handy is the BMW 135, because it too has a close ratio 6-speed manual gearbox (but non-sequential) and an extremely flexible engine. Several times I've lost track of what gear I was in.

The 370Z on the other hand, has nicely spaced ratios and, although the engine can rev, I can't imagine it being called motorbike-like -- it doesn't zing up. You get a lot of feedback from the engine and exhaust note, too.

So do you need the gear indicator on the 370Z? Well, it's nice to have, and doesn't take up almost any space in the meters at the bottom of the tacho. It's not like it's a head-up display that is blocking your view or something. And it shows you if you got the occasionally hard to get reverse.

Next to the gear indicator is a display showing if the Syncrorev match system is on or not (JK said it remembers last position selected.) Which is nice.

But I guess this won't matter in the future, anyway, when the New World Order in Washington forces us to all drive hybrid/electric/fuel cell vehicles with CVTs.

Albert Austria, Sr Vehicle Eval Engineer @ 4646 miles

2009 Nissan 370Z Touring: No ZZZZs Here

Quote:

We sure had fun when we put the 2009 Nissan 370Z against the new Mustang GT.

Pricewise, the cars were pretty evenly matched. And both hit 60 mph in 5.2 seconds and run the quarter in 13.5 seconds.

But there was a definite victor. And that winner, my friends, is the Car of the Week.

Donna DeRosa, Managing Edito

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