i'm jus wonderin when do u guys change to next gear durin normal driving to save up the most gas? i know goin 45mph on 4th gear (about 1,500rpm) saves gas and goin about 75 on 4th gear (2,600 rpm) saves gas as well.. how about for accelerating? i usually change @ 3,000 rpm but it still seems to drain a lot of my gas... wat do u guys think?

 

I usually try to keep it below 2500rpm for day to day driving. This lets me cruise at 70mph on the way to work. This gets me about 25mpg average, per tank. (20% highway driving)

 

Change gears?

You have an automatic, put it in drive and leave it there. You don't shift an automatic, it shifts for you automagically.

If you want to shift your car, go buy yourself a 5 speed and Shift_it correctly.

 

Easy big fella!

I control where my Automagic shifts with my foot.

I think I answered his question as he meant to ask it....

 

I agree I have a auto and I leave it in drive. Let the auto trans do its' job. The only time I bring it down to 1st or 2nd is when I auto-x.

 

If your racing someone off the line, and u know your not going to get above 70+ shift it yourself, but if you are trying to save gas, just leave it in drive with overdrive ON.

 

when i am driving normally.. I leave it in Drive.

When i want to pick up quick or merging onto the highway, i do this.....

As long as i am not going above 25mph...

Turn OD off
Put car in 2nd
give it a lot of gas
at 5000 rpm or so.. i switch to drive
(Remember OD is still off)
at this point I am at 60-70mph, give it nice amount gas till i get about 80, switch off OD, give it a little more gas, and I am at 90

but dont get me wrong. I dont always go that fast!! lol My foot is not that heavy! haha

I mean i have not timed it, but I am sure i get to 60 within 7 seconds or so... I am very impressed with this car.

I have only had this car since the last week in OCTOBER

Dan

 

Good point Ben, I know exactly what you mean there as well.

 

i guess i didn't make this thread clearer... wat i mean is when u put ur foot on the gas petal, u can control the gear's reving, not actually using the **** to shift to 1, 2, OD ON/OFF etc... i'm lookin for when people switch gear by foot durin normal driving tat they think it saves the most gas, not shiftin...

 

thx mod, according to ur info u may be saving more gas than me by reving under 2,500... maybe i should do tat too, i'll probably be slower around 5 minutes it's all good =)

 

It really doesn't matter how you drive it.
One way or the other, you won't get much better mileage by taking it easy.

At the bottom end, the torque converter wastes gas by slippage which by design is there so your car doesn't stall when you are stopped or trying to parallel park on a steep hill in San Francisco.

The lock-up device is marginally useful but won't stay engaged at anything more than the slightest acceleration.

So if you are always heavy on the gas getting to high rpms, the transmission gets into a more mechanically efficient mode but the fuel mixture also gets richer which then consumes more gas.

I did a test once by driving a whole tank of gas rarely letting the tach under 2500 rpms. Never used OD on the highway and never put it in 3rd until 50-55MPH. The end result was mileage virtually identical to the usual with driving gently and keeping the rpms low through every gear.

 

Man, you are WAY nicer to your car than I am. When I drove the 4th gen I'm guessing it shifted below 3,500 about 10% of the time. I only go a little slower in the 2k3 because it has so much torque down low.

Screw gas mileage - I drive a Maxima for a reason