I have a 2006 v6 auto and there is an overdrive button on the shifter. What is overdrive and what does it do?

 

Overdrive activates the turbo boost.

 

Lol @ Nick...


Overdrive is like a cruising gear... Your 5th gear.

 

Overdrive is a 1:1 gear, for highways and for fuel economy

If you have some time on your hands:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_%28mechanics%29

 

haha! Follow Alec's advise and don't forget

 

The 1:1 gear ratio lowers the the engine speed (rpm) when driving at highway speeds....55mph or over. The lower engine speed reduces fuel consumption. So, when you speed up hit the button and when your slowing down turn it off. I would leave it on all the time.

 

is it bad to drive w/ overdrive constantly on?

 

As mentioned above.. over drive is your 5th gear. Depends if you want to drive with 5th gear or not, but usually it's something you keep on. 1st, 2nd,3rd, D (4th), OD (5th) gear.

If you feel up to it, you can even manually upshift your auto. It can be fun, just don't skip gears, the stock shifter doesn't like to lock itself

 

Actually, the overdive gear is not the 1:1 gear, it is a gear that is lower than 1:1. Just like said above, it is a cruising gear and is meant for top speed or highway fuel economy.
If you turn off your overdrive button, what you do is you cause your tranny to lock out the overdrive gear (or gears, if there is more than one) so that the highest gear your car will shift into is the 1:1 gear.

I think on the 5speed automatic, the 4th gear is the 1:1 gear and the 5th is the overdrive, and hitting that switch locks out 5th gear.

On a manual, of course, there is no overdrive button, if you do not want to go into an overdrive gear, you simply do not shift into it.

 

Overdrive in car language translates into
"Oughtabedrivinamanual"

;P