Hmm...anytime I'm cruising in the mid 30's I always use 6th. Seems fine to me. Stay right around 2k rpm's.

I've tried various techniques. Skip gears going 1-2-4-6 for freeway, 1-2-3-5-6 for city, shifting at 2800 rpm's. I complained about my gas mileage and I noticed that nothing I do while stuck in traffic will increase my mileage.

I drove home late from work one day with no traffic and I only used 1 bar of gas. Driving to/from work with traffic will use about 3-4 bars of gas. Commute is bout 25 miles one way. When there's traffic, we're talking about severe stop and go. I'm lucky when I hit a patch of highway where I can cruise 55mph. Most of the time I'm stuck riding the clutch in 1st or cruising in 2nd.

So while I'm stuck at traffic, I'm getting pretty crappy 18-20(If I'm lucky)mpg. If I'm straigh highway cruising, then 26mpg.

 

Cruising at too low of an RPM will definitely NOT result in better gas mileage. A loaded engine at low RPMs (lugging) is not going to be as efficient as it would be at say 3K RPMs. Every engine has a sweet spot for efficiency. Most car manufacturers try to gear the car for that sweet spot to fall at 55 MPH in top gear to maximize their EPA mileage and help their CAFE standings.

 

 

 

35 mph in 6th gear is 1,885 rpm. The gear calculater is compliments of the "Reverend" I have to agree with what gernby said about the engine not being as efficent at this low of an engine speed, especially in the higher gears as they are harder to turn than the lower gears.

1,885 rpm in 6th gear has got to make a S2K (pre MY04, or even the MY04 for that matter) lug as well as possibly make the engine ping.

 

I'm usually in 6th gear at 35-40 mph if I'm just cruising. I guess i'll try staying in 5th and see if it makes a difference.

 

Am I on the wrong message board? I usually shift at 5k and get at least 27 mpg!

 

No, it's an epidemic.

 

 

I read an article somewhere about fuel efficiency and they did a little test.

They varied the shift points (high or low) and throttle input (gentle or full) and determined that:

Shifting early but keeping the throttle wide open results in the most efficient fuel economy, especially when accelerating to a certain speed (merging onto Autobahn, etc)

My fuel economy sits right around 24mpg on average. If it's mostly slow Autobahn cruising (130kmh) then I might get closer to 29mpg. If I'm doing Gumball 3000 speeds on the Autobahn (without the associated hard shoulder passes!), then it gets as bad as 18mpg. On the N