passat reverse gear

It's absolutely normal for cars without synchromesh on their reverse gear to do this (i.e. almost all cars with a manual gearbox).

The owners handbook that came with my car says that you have to hold down the clutch pedal for a couple of seconds before engaging reverse gear, it avoids the crunch on my car. If you rev the engine then put your foot on the clutch whilst the revs are high then quickly try to engage reverse on my car or try to engage reverse whilst moving you get crunches on mine, otherwise you do not.

-- James

Synchro on first gear is quite a modern innovation too. DaveK.

Oh well. Cheers :)

The only other cars ive driven for any amount of time are audi 80's... didnt seem to happen with those.

Dan

My Dad had a JCB 3CII, with synchromesh on 3rd, 4th and 5th only.

His International Harvester 434 has no synchromesh at all...

-- James

I used to drive a pre-war Rover 12 with no synchromesh at all. But it did have a freewheel which allowed poorly executed downshifts. It wasn't a crash box as such as the gear engagement was by dogs - rather like a motorcycle one. But for quiet changes you had to match the revs perfectly. Good practice which you never forget.

With the 434 the best way to change gear is to stop first.

It does pull away happily in any gear though, unless you've got a lot of weight in the trailer.

-- James