Does this really work, or is this dude a dumbass?

 

that only works if you're light on the gas and accelerate slowly.

ie, corvettes are able to achieve higher than expected fuel economy number with a "shift lock" system. Basically, if you are not driving aggressively, the gears go from 1st gear (to take off from a stop), skips 2nd and 3rd, to 4th gear, and then to higher gears. Obviously, the g35 doesn't quite have the torque, but one should be able to see some results going from 1st to 3rd, and then to higher gears.

That said... one does not buy performance oriented sport(y) coupes for the sake of gas mileage, but there is no harm in trying, i suppose.

 

makes ya wonder when gas mileage or lack thereof is of such prime importance...

 

honestly. if you have to be skipping gears to save gas then you're driving the wrong car.

get a corolla or something.

 

Who told you that???? That is so incorrect!!!!!! Depending on how fast you're going, yeah... you could go from 3rd to 5th (for example). Let's just say you put on 3rd gear and accelerate until 85mph and then change to 5th gear. That’s not a problem, (although it doesn’t make any fuc#%^&ing sense), because at that speed, 5th gear is fine. However, you SHOULD NOT drive your car at lower gears when the car is CLEARLY asking you to shift up!!!! Whoever told you that, wants to save gas, therefore he is definitely not changing gears at high RPMs, which means that he is probably driving on 4th gear at 25mph, which will eventually mess up his drivetrain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As posted earlier, C5 Corvettes with manual tranny are set up to have you skip gears. I guess fuel economy is part of it, but my Vette averaged over 22mpg over the life of the car, which is better than either of my V6 SUVs.
It can't hurt to save gas, but also as posted earlier you don't buy a Vette or a G35 to worry about gas.

 

Take a pill and chill bro. The last I checked this was still a public forum.

All I was saying is that if you’ve reached a point where you have be doing things like skipping gears to save on gas, then it might be time that you seriously consider rearranging certain priorities in life. Driving a car like the G might be one of them.

 

I skip gears sometimes. Especially when stuck in traffic or when i'm closing the gap between me and the car in front of me, knowing that it's not speeding up anytime soon.

I think trying to save gas on any vehicle is human nature, unless your mommy and daddy pays for everything you own. I'm pretty sure those SUVs try to ease up on the gas sometimes to get that extra miles on their guzzlers.

 

every one wants to save some times. i usuallly skip from 4th to 6th

 

once and a while I will do the same

 

Mess up drive train? No; read the manual, I have achieved up to 27MPG on my 40 mile commute when I drive my 04 6MT... There is plenty torque to keep the car rolling (and many times in Houston, that is all you have to do, just keep it rolling)... I ease down the traffic many times at 20MPH in 4th. or 40MPH in 6th. I have 72,000 miles and running better than ever...
Now I did act a fool today (well maybe not that bad), what some call "spirited driving; others may call if running the f*@k out of it...
So don't think that it gets driven slowly like this all the time, but when you don't need to turn RPM's for any other reason than you just wanting to turn them or thinking your hurting something, check out what Nissan says about it and save some wear and tear, and yeah, some gas too; why not?

Just don't go driving around in 6th. at 20MPH or you will learn what lugging is all about. Oh yeah, one more thing... Since you are just rolling at very low RPM's sometimes, be sure to downshift a gear or 2, or 3 if needed before accelerating.

 

Our motor gets optimal fuel economy at around 1500-1700 RPM's while cruising in gear on flat ground(based off of what I've noticed according to the NAV's fuel economy feature), and it's not low enough to bog the car on a flat road... keep the revs close to that in whatever way possible if you really want to get optimal fuel efficiency while cruising at an even speed on a noninclined road grade.

The benefit of skipping shifts is that it forces you to keep your average RPM's through the acceleration cycle at a lower number than if you shifted through all of the gears while shifting at the same RPM point. Example.. say you shift your car at 2800 RPM's in each gear along the way of accelerating from 0 to 60 MPH..... you effectively only use the RPM band between maybe 2100 and 2800 RPM's while upshifting one gear at a time(especially in a close ratio transmission like we have). If you do a 1-3-5 shift along the way instead, you will now be using the RPM range from about 1300 to 2800, and the portion of that RPM band that is closer to optimal fuel efficiency range(like I said earlier, around 1700 RPM's) will yield you better economy. If you compared the 2 shifting scenarios side by side, the skip-shift scenario would have turned less revs along the way to accelerating to 60 MPH(provided that you don't skip-upshift at such a low RPM that you bog the motor soo severely that it's acceleration is super-sluggish and takes forever to get to 60 MPH).

In all reality though, a good driver making a concerted effort to save fuel should be able to get just as good, if not better fuel economy by consciously shifting through all of the 6 gears while accelerating and shifting at a lower RPM in each gear than you would while skip-shifting, so that your motor is always closer to the optimal fuel economy RPM for as much time as possible.. which, by shifting through all gears at the right RPM, should be a longer time at that RPM than when skip-shifting.

 

95% of the time I shift at 2000 rpm. If I happen to slow down, its not uncomon for me to let the RPM's drop to 1400 in any gear. Unless your racing or climbing a steep hill the VQ has always had plenty of torque to keep up with traffic. As a result I average at least 24 mpg per tank, and I believe its one of the reasons im still able to keep the original cluch in the car for so long. I have over 106K miles now.

 

My fault for not being specific!!! Yeah, sometimes I drive on 4th or even 5th gear at low speeds... but the car will be running without me accelarating it! (well, I might accelarate, but lightly). If I need to accelarate to make a pass or something, I will shift down! I was in the assumption that this dude was driving his car on high gears at very low speeds in order to save gas. I thought he just wouldn't shift up although the car was clearly asking for a higher gear!!