I know, I know, always listen to the owners manual. but my OM tells me to put my car in Reverse whenever I park it. (Its a 2002 SL manual transmission, if that helps at all) However, I'm used to just slipping it into first, while the parking break is engaged of course.

Will I end up damaging or putting my car at risk for anything at all in any way if I continue to just put it into 1st instead of Reverse?

I thought I had an answer for you until I looked up your transmission's gear ratios. . .

As I'm sure you're aware, manual transmission cars (lacking a locking parking gear) are stopped from rolling only by the resistance of the engine rotating (and the parking brake). From the perspective of the rotating engine, the lowest gear ratio is generally reverse - the engine spins 2.923 times for every turn of the wheels (not taking into account the affect of the differential gearing).

Now reverse the perspective to that of the wheels rotating the engine. Instead of reverse or first being considered low gears, they're now high gears: 2.923:1.00 backwards becomes 0.342:1.00. That would be like pedaling a bicycle where the back wheels spins nearly three times for every rotation of the crank! A very high (and difficult) gear.

Conversely, if you were to park in 5th gear (0.605:1.00), the ratio from the perspective of wheels turning the engine would be 1.65:1.00. In other words, it's a lot easier to push a car that's in 5th gear as opposed to 1st or reverse.

Now back to your specific question, why does Saturn say to use reverse? I don't know. Assuming you have the SOHC engine with the MP2 Manual Transaxle, these are your gear ratios:

1: 3.250:1.00
2: 1.95:1.00
3: 1.172:1.00
4: 0.811:1.00
5: 0.605:1.00
R: 2.923:1.00

1st gear is lower than reverse, thus it would provide the most resistance to the car rolling! Maybe there's something specific to the transaxle that makes it prefer reverse. . . If so, I can't find any supporting information.


-Kyle


Edited by: kylek350

maybe saturn thinks we all park on a downhill slope?

NO it's not wrong.....................

i've always just used the parking brake with the gearbox in neutral. but, my parking spot is flat.


s3aturnr