Please excuse a silly question. I've always owned manual transmission cars and it is pretty easy to know what gear the car or truck is currently in. I can tell by the load on the engine, sound of the engine, speed of the car, the road grade, etc. Pretty simple.

But . . . with my new car, a '89 300CE, I find it difficult to know exactly what gear I'm in. My commute is up and down mountains, traveling a twisty, steep two lane road. I'm constantly down shifting and up shifting, depending on the current condition of the road and location of the car at any particular moment. Sometimes I forget and don't know if I am in third gear or fourth gear, and with it being dark outside, I cannot see the shift lever.

My wife's Avalon has an orange indicator on the floor shift that easily and readily shows what gear the car is in. As it is now, I have to put my fingers into the shift slot and "feel" around to see what gear the car is in.

Is there supposed to be some type of little indicator light that shows the current gear selected? I hope there is and that my bulb is just burned out. Can anyone help? Thanks.