I have always been wondering, which gear is the proper gear to drive in, at which speeds? More city driving I am talking about. I have never owned an import car in my life until this one, and so I dont have many ideas on which gear is best, or if the higher gears will hurt the engine cause its working too hard.

My question is, what RPMs do you guys keep your cars while driving around the city at like 60 km/h (37 mph), or 45 km/h (28 mph).

I often use 5th gear at 60 km/h, giving me a driving RPM of around 2500. Bad idea? Should I be using 4th at about 3400? Ill often use 4th for 45 km/h (28 mph) too, for about 2500 RPMs again. Am I driving my car too low on the RPM scale? Where do you guys drive the car? Im talking the slow driving times (which isnt often).

http://www.convertunits.com/from/km/to/miles
http://www.convertunits.com/from/miles/to/km

For anyone who needs to convert any units for everyone.

 

I usually have my car in 4th gear when cruising around 60 km/h and sometimes even in 3rd gear...in my opinion driving in any gear higher than 4th at that particular speed is just causing our cars to work harder which in turn might result in poor gas mileage and besides our cars are high reving machines

 

I always have mine in 5th while at 40mph. I usually keep my rpms around 2500, and I get good gas mileage.

 

If I'm going to be going 40+ for awhile, I will go into 6th. But usually stay in 5th for anything 37-40

 

Unless I need to maintain some ability to accelerate or climb hills, I'll go to 6th at any speed above ~32-35 mph.

Power output required is the same for a given speed whatever gear you're in. In a taller gear, you do need more torque from the engine to put the same power to the wheels, and hence you need more throttle, but this is actually MORE efficient than being in a lower gear, at higher rpm, less engine torque and hence smaller throttle opening required. Even though it may seem like the engine is "working harder" in the taller gear.

If you don't need to be accelerating or climbing, 2500 rpm or even less is not a problem.

 

I like to keep the rpm's around 3k when crusing. Anything under just feels more sluggish to me. AP2 is probably a little different.

 

I like to keep the rpm's around 3500-4000 so I'm usually in 3-4th gear around 40mph.

 

whatever gear feels normal
i dont think about it too much

 

i was wondering this today too...but it seems like anywhere from 2500 to 3000 is pretty good...and i found out that i can cruise in 6th no problem doing 40 mph...

 

Between 2500-3000 rpms like everyone stated. Most times I'll keep her in 6th until I need to speed up. This is for an AP2 as well. The car does get very sluggish if dropped below 2500rpm, but otherwise, I haven't had any issues. I get around 21-23mpg driving this way too, with the occasional VTEC.