98 GXE. I agree that 4th gear is pretty much useless on a manual. I am constantly going 1-2-3-5. If they would have made 5th more of a cruising gear, say 2k rpms at 70mph, then that would have been great for gas mileage. It would be easy to shift down to 4th to pass. Currently, on the highway I never take it out of 5th. Plenty of torque to pass people without shifting...

Anyways, I get 24-25 mpg on about 50/50 city/highway driving. In the summer (I live in Phx) with the AC on I get about 22-23 mpg. This equates to about 350-400 miles before my light comes on. On cross country trips with the car loaded down crusing at about 75 I was getting around 28 mpg, which I think is pretty damn good.

Oh, I use 89 gas. I do see a drop in mpg when using 87, and I didn't see an increase going to 91 (plus I don't push my car that hard so I didn't see a performance increase either). Shifting normally around or before 3500 rpm.

 

25 miles to the gallon..stock 98 GLE