I'm just wondering... with gas prices so low, what is the lowest rpm i should be shifting at and what should i be cruising at? I'm trying to conserve gas obviously, but not at the cost of detriment to my engine/clutch. I know that i will be reving higher in lower gears before shifting since the revs drop more from 1st to 2nd than 2nd to 3rd and so on, but im just looking for a little bit of a guidline.

 

It's like this; if you were riding in an automatic car and was just barely pressing the gas because there was no need to accelerate fast, the car would shift quickly and smoothly below 2000RPM's... I do this all the time commuting to work, the 6MT G has plenty enough torque to do this and it saves much fuel.

Some people say this is crazy, but I say they are crazy because I average 26MPG during my weekly commute driving this way with my 6MT. On the other hand; when I want to run the f*** out of my car I shift at 6500-6800 (or wherever the hell I want in between that) and that is usually on the weekends and days off (I still get at least 19MPG.)

There is no sane reason to turn the engine fast if you don't need to or want to, it just burns gas and causes wear... I've been driving manuals for more than 24 years and have learned many tricks, saving fuel is easy, just not quite as fun as burnin' it!

 

I do exaclty the same for exactly the same reasoning... around 2000 rpm to me seems to be safe (except that the best Ive gotten is 24 so far)

 

damn.... that seems kinda low. I know what you are talking about with the automatics and cruising/shifting rpm, but i have heard that because of differences in transmission design between manual and auto's.... someone with a more technical view of this please step in for me.

 

ive been shifting around 2500 or something... i look more at what my revs DROP to in the next gear. I wont let my revs drop below 2000 while shifting and have been cruising around there also. I have had the car over a year now and have used 6th gear only while on the highway really, and recently ive been using it around town at whatever speed 2k rpm in 6th is (55-60mph?)

 

26 MPG is pretty damn good, is this mostly highway driving? not as much street driving? Typically for me i get almost no freeway driving, always city driving. Being that is 13-15 MPG considered too low? I drive an 05 AT and shifts are usually no higher than 3000 RPM. Does this MPG fit in with my driving or does my car have problems?

Also since my car has been in the shop due to a rearend incident for 29 days, it has mostly been sitting still. Would this have affected my MPG in any way? My friend mentioned to me that my transmission oil has went bad since its just been sitting there for a month w/o any warmup driving. Before this incident i used to get 16MPG and up all with city driving. Is he right? or is my car just problematic.

 

i was getting 13 mpg when my car was new and it steadily rose to 17 mpg... rising about .5 mpg or so each tank of gas i went through. This is all city traffic. If i was even half highway driving im confident i would be up at 20-21mpg per tank. I dont think your mpg is too low for a 2005 doing all city driving... im also guessing that you do occasionally rev it up and get on it.

 

+1
i've been doing the same the past few weeks. been keeping it between 1200-2000 rpms. been getting some incredible gas mileage to boot.
here's nissan's recommended shift points:
Gear change MPH (km/h)
1st to 2nd 8 (13)
2nd to 3rd 16 (26)
3rd to 4th 25 (40)
4th to 5th 28 (45)
5th to 6th 33 (53)

 

The only rpm that is too low is felt when the engine begins to labor. Kinda a chug.. chug feeling. This car has tons of torque. Just look at the 'recommended shift points'. Shift to 6th at 33mph, does that mean 1st directly to 6th???

 

^^ well said...

 

You will not see a large increase in gas milege just to let you know...maybe 5-10 miles extra..

 

i was getting 15l/100 before... now i'm getting 11l/100. that's a huge difference for me. not only at the pump but in my wallet too. as for driving up hills... that's what downshifting is for.

 

I usually get 20-21.5 MPG and I tried last wee k to see how the driving method would affect mileage. I took off in second and shifted to 4th and then 6th. The result was an increase to 24.6 on just one tankful. I was running in 6th at 35MPH and I think the RPM was around 1100-1200 or so. I didn't shift much over 2000 at anytime. Now, will a clutch cost me more in the future? Possibly but I only did it for a week to see what would happen. Higher mileage is possible.

 

My bad I thought he said shifting, not cruising. I take back all the gibberish I said.