Not sure if it's better. For me, whenever I'm coming slowing down, unless I'm in second, I usually tap on the brakes and stay on it while down shifting from 5th to 4th to 3rd to 2nd and let the engine do part of the work of slowing the car down while staying in a good gear for my current speed in case I want to take off before coming to a complete stop.
As for shifting. . .I tend to drive hard here so I'm shifting around 4-5k rpms in 1st and 2nd, then 3-4k in 3rd and 4th (also keep in mind i'm running a 3.73 lsd) Whenever I want to conserve gas (my mood varies depending on the time of day) I usually shift lower (around 2500-3k) sacrificing speed/power for fuel economy.
I know while I'm in DC over xmas (I can't think of anywhere in the city where the speed limit is more than 35mph), I'm likely not going to go past 4th . . . probably a lot of time in 2nd or 3rd and once I move to pittsburgh, unless i'm on the interstate, it'll mostly be like driving in DC (no speed limits over 30mph in the city)
*if you find my complaints of DC and pittsburgh speed limits strange, keep in mind that i've spent most of the last five years in cities that have speed limits of up to 45mph in the city where people routinely hit 60mph on those roads. The most people are pushing their cars in DC is like 40. |