{"id":43166,"date":"2026-09-11T22:52:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=43166"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:52:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:52:05","slug":"what-the-e-on-old-car-gear-shifts-really-means-and-why-drivers-are-just-discovering-it-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=43166","title":{"rendered":"What the \u201cE\u201d on Old Car Gear Shifts Really Means \u2014 And Why Drivers Are Just Discovering It Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\" data-start=\"107\" data-end=\"342\">On some older cars, the letter \u201cE\u201d on the gear selector stood for <strong data-start=\"173\" data-end=\"184\">Economy<\/strong>. It was designed to help save fuel by making the automatic transmission shift into higher gears at lower engine spee&#8230;<strong>Continue Reading<\/strong><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"344\" data-end=\"626\">The feature appeared mainly on certain vehicles from the late 1970s through the 1980s, when fuel efficiency became increasingly important. The downside was slower acceleration because the transmission prioritized economy instead of performance.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"628\" data-end=\"914\">Modern Eco modes use computers to adjust several systems, including throttle response and transmission behavior, while the older \u201cE\u201d setting mainly changed shift timing. It worked somewhat like an early version of today\u2019s fuel-saving driving modes.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"916\" data-end=\"1173\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Drivers who find an \u201cE\u201d setting on an older vehicle may find it useful for steady, flat-road cruising, but \u201cD\u201d is generally better when stronger acceleration, hills, towing, or frequent stop-and-go driving are involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On some older cars, the letter \u201cE\u201d on the gear selector stood for Economy. It was designed to help save fuel by\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What the \u201cE\u201d on Old Car Gear Shifts Really Means \u2014 And Why Drivers Are Just Discovering It Now - New50<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=43166\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=43166&page=2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What the \u201cE\u201d on Old Car Gear Shifts Really Means \u2014 And Why Drivers Are Just Discovering It Now - New50\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On some older cars, the letter \u201cE\u201d on the gear selector stood for Economy. 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