Automotive technology is constantly changing. Advancements come, and stuff that was once cutting-edge rapidly approaches the rear-view mirror. Such is the way of the five-speed transmission. Currently, there are just two cars left in the U.S. that offer five-speed transmission. One is an automatic and one is a manual; neither are very long for this world, but we already know when one is dying.
I say that because the last vehicle with a five-speed automatic is the fifth-generation Toyota 4Runner, and its replacement, the 2025 4Runner, was revealed to us earlier this week. While some weirdo 4Runner purists probably wish it soldiered on with five forward gears, Toyota thought eight would be more appropriate for the modern era. I’ve got to agree with that decision. Then, we look to the situation with five-speed manuals. It’s slightly less dire, thankfully, but things still aren’t looking good. If you need to row your own and want no more than five gears, you’ve got one option: a base-model Nissan Versa.
That’s right, no other cars on sale in the U.S. have that handful of gears anymore. It makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean, automakers are constantly trying to increase the lifespan and efficiency of internal combustion motors, and a great way to do that is by adding more gears. Eight, nine or 10 forward gears is pretty commonplace at this point. Something else hurting five-speed autos, especially in cheaper cars, is the advent of CVTs. On the whole, they return better gas mileage than five-speeds, and while they’re not exactly exhilarating to use, most people don’t give a shit.
This all got me thinking about when the first five-speed automatic transmission came about, so I wanted to do a little history research. As it turns out, it was a lot more recently than you may have thought. Annoyingly (not really, they’re cool), The Drive seemed to have had a similar thought about the dying transmission. According to their research, the first five-speed automatic transmission was built by ZF for the E32 1991 BMW 7-Series. At that time, almost everything was either a three- or four-speed, so those extra gears were probably a very welcome addition. Isn’t that wild, though? This transmission we all took for granted for so long (in automatic form, anyway) has only been around for 33 years. It’s still just a kid!
Anyway, with the incoming death of the fifth-generation 4Runner, the Nissan Versa is now the lone survivor in the quest to keep the five-speed alive. Don’t go into the light, little friend. We need you as a linkage to our past, and as a way to see just how far we’ve come.