Sorry, seems like I did misunderstand your question first time around Since I don't own a 6speed, you have to take this FWIW. I think that having the extra ratio does have a huge advantage. There are times when it comes into play. In my 5-speed, I found that something 5th gear wouldn't climb the hill, 4th gear would climb it just fine but RPM's were too high. If I had an extra ratio slotted in there, it would have been nice. Same goes for other situations too. I live on the top of a hill, to get up to my house you have to climb these hills at 30-40MPH. Here, the 2-3 shift basically killed acceleration, so you would have to rev it a bit higher than usual in 2nd. I think an extra ratio would have improved both of my situations From another point of view, I've driven both the 4AT Ody (mine) and the 5AT Ody (04 and 05 - 2 different gens) for a significant amount of time. I know they're AT's and thats not what you're asking about, but I think it's a good example. In my 4AT, it's always in the wrong gear around town, especially once again between the 2-3 shift. It usually shifts out of second at around 30-35MPH, but it won't shift out of third and into fourth until 55-60MPH. And third also is burdened with being a passing gear. So the compromise is especially noticeable here, but it felt like the extra gear in the 5AT improved things quite a bit.
