I am curious to know what gear people think get's the best gas milage....3rd,4th,5th etc.

 

um obviously 5th would get you the best MPG.. if your just cruising. but it all depends what you are doing.. racing from a stop in 5th gear would get horrible MPG so it all depends

 

5th gear for 2k and 2k1... 6th gear in 2k2 and 2k3. But i think what u are looking for is to keep the rpms around 2000rpms when driving. this is a good cruising speed for whatever speedlimit

 

um, i'd assume the highest gear with the lowest gear ratio would give you the best mileage....

 

Yea as said above highest gear you have so that your not pushin on the car and just crusin along will give the best gas milege.

 

i've been trying to keep mine at 1500, am i shifting too much, or am i getting even better gas mileage?

somtimes i find myself in 5th gear going 40 mi an hour, im trying to compare to what my auto did

i have a six speed btw

 

nah try to shift around 2500 .. once you get moving ^50 then you can drop it into 5th or 6th.. but shift at around 2500.

 

D (drive)

 

Hmm...

Something doesn't seem quite right here...

 

Really ? Have you tried racing from 5th gear ?.........

 

 

I get the best MPG with the car in P with the engine turned off.

 

............................... at what speed are you driving?

That's the first step to figuring out what gear to be in.

 

I race from a stop in 5th gear all the time. It's great. Although he is right, it does cause bad MPG.

 

And since ya have a 6 speed... the next step is to master launches in 6th gear right?

 

are you crazy!? 5th gear takes up enough gas from a stop as it is! 6th gear?? man, you haven't seen the gas prices!

 

...........that's too funny!

 

I cruise on a fairly level road in 6th gear at speeds at or above 40mph. If i'm around 40 or so traveling on a slight incline, i'll be in 5th where the car can still can accelerate smoothly. My mpg fucntion on my trip computer still says im getting well over 20mpg while doing this.

 

if you have 6 speed gearbox, you can fill up full tank, drive in first gear and record your milage, then fill up again, drive in second gear and record your milage... and so on up to 6th. Whichever gear gives you the best milage is the right gear for you.

P.S. you can also try reverse, but please stay off public roadways

 

whenever im just cruising, i ALWAYS have it in 6th, even on my road which is 30 mph....only when i need to accelerate do i have it in a lower gear

 

wouldnt it be kinda hard to continuously travel at 30 mph at redline?? haha! i wouldnt wanna be on the highway in 1st gear... reverse would be a pretty tough one to pull of as well...

 

oh you guys...

 

wow this thread is all confused.......It's all way more complicated than that, the best mpg is achieved in different gears for different situations. IE going up a 8% grade at 65mph, i would be in 4th, and i would guarantee better mileage on the exact same car in 5th gear at that point. This is because of all the other factors. Your engine dispenses fuel to itself as a function of air intake, more specifically oxygen intake, which it reads from the MAF, intake air temp sensor, and MAP sensors if you have one, depends on year. In the situation i gave before, the engine would actually be drawing more fuel and would be cutting timing off to compensate for the high load/low rpm situation, such as when you guys can experience a slight ping going uphill slowly. In short, there is no simple answer for this. My max is not often below 3000 rpm, and i get around 23-24mpg average. 26-28 hwy. Then again i've seen max's who run mostly between 2-3k, which get like 20. It depends on way more than the gear you're driving. In fact if you want to find out where you should be shifting, just read your manual, it's in there. It's something like 2nd at 16, 3rd at 28, 4th at 35, and 5th at 43 or something, it's a bunch of random speeds at way to low and way to short intervals......so do some experimenting.

 

so if i'm driving uphill, i could be cruising in 6th at the LOWEST rpm and make worse gas mileage than if i had it in 4th with a higher rpm?

 

Yes indeed.

 

I stay at the highest gear I can while still maintaining the ability to accelerate in a pinch if necessary... and always above 1500 RPM, to avoid lugging the engine.

So sometimes I'm cruising on the highway in 4th gear for a period of time, especially going uphill, but in general if I'm up to speed I keep it in 5th anywhere above 40-50MPH.

 

3000 seems a bit high to be cruising at, my 95 auto is barely above 2000 unless its on the highway

as for the 6 spd...
i have a lot of one lane long roads to work where i average about 40mph, at 5th gear i can keep it at 1500, at 4th its at 2000, i feel like 2000 rpm is racing it unnecessarily unless i want to accelerate quickly