before the gas got reached ridiculous levels, in city driving i would shift until 4, but not go into 5 or 6...now since they prices at 2.50+ how much better mileage would i get by shifting into 5th or 6th? would i even get better mileage because if im going say 35 and need to speed up, and i feel lazy i dont bother to downshift; but in order to speed up to 45-50 i gotta bury my foot pretty deep...

 

no1 can really tell u what to cruise at.. depends on the speed limit in the city ure in.. if ure cruisin right above that gears shift level then there wouldnt b any reason to shift into a higher gear

 

I cruise at 5th in the city when I get lazy.

 

i usually drive 40-45 around the city here; i also usually leave it in fourth at that speed; the point of my post was i was wondering how much of a difference would it improve my mileage to drive 40-45 in 5th instead of 4th

 

Find out for yourself. Choose a nice stretch of road without much traffic. At the beginning, in 4th, reset the mileage computer. Drive 3-4 miles at steady speed in 4th, at a certain point check mileage, turn around, reset the computer, drive back at the same speed in 4th. When you get to your starting point, check mileage. (Doing it both directions makes altitude change of the road irrelevant to your test).

Now do the same thing over again, only this time in 5th gear. That will give you your answer. Please post your results.

 

I can give you a little info on this.

I used to go up to 5th gear when I was driving around town. The speed limit is 45. I was getting around 19mpg. Now I've been shifting from 1-3-5-6 or 1-3-6 and stay is 6th most of the time. I am getting around 23mpg right now. This is all in city trafic so lots of stop and go.

 

2nd gear in city, maybe, maybe sometimes 3rd.

 

Consult the drivers operating handbook, they spell out exactly how fast and what gear to be in.

 

you do 2nd gear at 45mph? sometimes third? thats like 5000RPMs for cruising in the city? .......

I hit 6th at 45mph. 5th over 37ish. Ill take 6th down to 40 before downshifting.

according to the manual, you should shift to 5th at 32mph and 6th at 38mph. IME its basicly 1500rpm is the lowest you should drive at, whatever gear that might be, when your under 1500, you should downshift. 1st and 2nd obviously dont quite follow it.

 

when in traffic or when i am just not really accellerating, i put it in 3rd in the teens, 4th in the 20s, 5th in the 30s, 6th by 35mph.

I get about 23mpg. 80% of my driving is on freeways though. And 50% of that 80% is in heavy traffic.

 

cruising I hit 5th at around 40ish. 1-3 I shift around 3krpms

 

I try to never let my RPM's go below 2600 RPM other wize the chatter from the tilton can be a bit loud..

 

I would guess that gas milage improves if one drives a steady speed with low RPM. I wouldn't accelerate hard if the RPMs are below 2000 though.

I usually keep the minimum RPMs approx 3000 just driving around...no knocking, no lugging of engine. I'm always amazed that my mpg's are in the 25-28 range when I'm on the freeway and 21-22 in town--unless I'm accelerating a lot--then it drops to 19 mpg.

Gas is well above $2.50/gal here in Northern Calif. Can $3.00/gal be far ahead?? Even though I have a very long list, this is one problem I don't blame the president for.

 

I'm usually cruising between 1700-2300 RPM.

However, when the road gets twisty and traffic lightens up, then I'm usually 3000-4000.

-D'oh!