January 4, 2011
What saves more gas, driving in a higher or lower gear?
I’m sure this is one of those questions that there is no “simple” answer, so let me specify. Say I’m just cruising along going around 30, making it so I could put my car (98 ford escort SE, btw) in 3rd or 4th and both would run smoothly. Which saves more gas? I’m pretty mind-numbingly dumb when it comes to cars, so save any BS you’re going to give me. Best answer goes to the person who clarifys it the best.
btw, there is no RPM keeper-tracker, and if you can’t tell by “keeper-tracker”, I know shit about cars.
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Filed under Gas Conservation FAQ by on Jan 4th, 2011. Comment. 
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Comments on What saves more gas, driving in a higher or lower gear?
If you are holding the speed even and not trying to accelerate then 4th would work. However, when you would want to accelerate, I would suggest that you shift back to 3rd to keep the engine from lugging down. If the acceleration is gradual, then you could still leave the car in 4th and gradually gain the speed. If you have to press on the gas fairly hard, then downshift.
Naturally, the higher gear will save gas, but you have to keep the engine running in its power band.
shoot for lower RPM’s
The less you push the gas pedal down the less gas you use. Notice that in higher gears you’re pushing the pedal down less to cruise at the same speed.
However, when accelerating, the lower gear is more fuel efficient because you don’t have to push the pedal down as much to accelerate.
It’s all about that gas pedal.
There is one way to answer easily – speaking only about your situation.
To answer your question, I shall ask you one…
Which gear has the RPM gauge lower at the same speed?
That one is using less gas in your case.
This may change a bit for acceleration, but when you are simply cruising down the road, the higher gear will save a bit of gas. This is because the engine will be turning at a slower rate and will therefore be burning less gas and air (the engine is set up to always burn about the same amount of gas in each cylinder every time the spark plug fires, and how often the spark plugs fire is directly related to how fast the engine is turning. Without throwing a bunch of technical terminology at you, the faster the engine is turning (higher RPMs), the more gas you will burn. As you have probably already seen on your tach, the engine will turn at a lower RPM in 4th gear at 30MPH than it will in 3rd gear. Hard acceleration will also burn more gas (at least in part because the engine is revving higher), so if you accelerate gently and put the trans in a higher gear when cruising, you should get better gas mileage and also slightly longer engine life (because when it strains more, it wears out faster, like in hard acceleration). I hope this helps!
I really not for sorting but I do know it’s best to drive a standard vechile over an automatic because there good on gas.