When im driving in 5th gear the RPM's seem high around 3500 is this normal?

https://www.youcanic.com/nissan-transmission-problems/

there is not enough specif details available to be able to be close to exact But I will give an example that you can compare
in a manual transmission with a diff ratio of 3.909 and in 5th gear the rpms for 79 mph is 3200 rpms
the difference between gears is around 250 rpms so if you try to correlate the differences if it was in 4th gear the rpms would be around 3750 rpms so I suspect that the over drive section of the transmission is not engaging ( assuming that it is auto transmission)
so to answer your question , I am saying that it is too high in rpms for that speed and I suspect that the od is not being engaged as the rpms at 80mph I would be looking at around 3200-3500 rpms depending on the diff ratio

That is a typical RPM at that speed for most 6-speed 4 cylinder engines. The reason for this is that they have a much lower power output at lower RPMs (due to lack of torque), and the engineers want for you to have SOME acceleration to get up little hills.

the clutch might be slipping (worn-out),
the pressure plate finger springs might be getting weak,
the clutch pedal may not fully release the clutch to engage completely, and so on ...

nothing wrong that's acually normal. buick is more of a cross crountry type vehicle still with great power as to a vw there more sporty so higher rpms are fine .. when your at an idle there around 500rpms and around 30 they increase then drop till another gear sound about where yours is at now if it starts going around 45 5000then possable a sensor or a vacccume but i wouldnt worry cars sounds normal and where it should be...

yep,that right,3500 = 70 mph.in5th gear. small engine/high revs.

I hope I'm wrong but I think your torque converter is failing. Sorry, Gary

Hi
there is no overdrive buttone in VW.
Seems like you need new clutch.

the transmission is probably on its way out. you might not have noticed when you test drove the car that it was running high rpms but youwould notice it on the highway.its probably on its last legs though

You should have another gear "5th" at 70mph your tacho should read about 2500 rpm.
Make sure you don't need to depress something or push the gear stick against a spring to select 5th.
Is there a gear layout on top of the gearstick knob, do you have 5th gear on there?
The highest gear ratio is a little over 1 to 1 so at 70 mph you would expect 3500 rpm, but, it is a little over 1 to 1 so it will be closer to 2500rpm.