Well, I don’t claim to be an expert, so I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but here are a few things to consider:

1.) Say you’re cruising at about 35mph in 6th gear and you need to pick up a few mph to accelerate to a higher speed limit, climb a shallow hill or just to maintain your current speed.
a.) You’d be lugging your engine – unnecessary stress on any engine is bad.
b.) How much farther do you need to depress the gas pedal in 6th gear vs. 3rd to get similar acceleration? More pedal travel = more gas.
2.) If you’re just coasting, the Renesis uses little to no gas no matter what gear you’re in.
3.) Many people here have reported the same or even better fuel economy when they DONT granny drive around town (highway is a different story).
4.) When you drive a car equipped with a 5- or 6-gear automatic transmission, does it shift to the highest gear whenever you get off the gas? If saving fuel were that easy, car manufacturers would be all over it.

Now I’m not saying that in some situations being one gear high couldn’t be beneficial, but 6th gear at 35mph is probably doing more harm than good.

 

So you do see why you might get flamed. Though it would seem the more outspoken members are in a good mood this week.

So, um, Miker - how 'bout that c-note?

 

OK you win. Now I know what Helen of Troy must have felt like starting that war...

 

Not trying to make this into a mpg thread, but there was in interesting article in last month's Road & Track about efficiency. One of the "myths" that they identified was the one about driving like you have an egg between your foot and the gas pedal.

What they concluded was that since engines actually operate most efficiently at WOT, you can drive efficiently by giving plenty of throttle but up-shifting early, commonly called short shifting.

So, the badness is not how hard you press the gas pedal, it's how long you keep it down and how many revs you use. They even flat out stated that revs are the enemy when it comes to mpg.

Oh well, back on thread.

 

the badness is in using WOT when you're in 6th gear doing 35, you simply can't get similar acceleration because there isn't enough torque in that gear to make a difference. More pedal travel doesn't equal more gas because the engine isn't going to rev any higher, you're opening the throttle all the way but the airflow sensor still knows that the engine isn't revving much and thus you're not getting the full burst of fuel going in there, if it did then your engine would be running so rich it'd probably flood. So you're not using more fuel, you're just lugging the engine which never has never had any good come out of it.

 

Well, it seems that the "Stupidest Question Ever" isn't the reverse gear question, but the 35mph in 6th gear question. Page 5-9 in my owner's manual says for cruising, 6th gear should be used at 42 mph.

 

Socr8tes, you got pic's of your G-Ride lol
I want see. I have a WB too