Heltah

Thanks wont use snow!

If im going 30-35 mph and I see a red light 100 yards up Im taking my foot off the gas and coasting in so I dont use brake as much. My point is that the tranny does not let you. Wouldnt it be more efficient to let the car roll?

Anyways basically its really hard to judge when to let off the gas compared to my other cars.

Chi-town

In the instance or instances I was refering to, its not for a long duration. Mostly rural, heavily populated areas and such. Also, as others have pointed out, it depends on which setting your transmission is in. I almost never put my IS in snow mode (haven't really had too), so I can only comment one the two other settings.

In regular auto mode transmission holds the gear pretty good.

In sport/ect the transmission holds the gear extremely well, I have to tap the accelerator or paddle shifter to get it into a lower gear.

Like I have stated in this forum before, I Love this car!!!! Especially, because of the transmission among other things.

The Chad

You are if you are accelerating or maintaining a certain speed, but a modern engine, if you let off of the gas, will coast and use absolutely no fuel at all. So if you downshift and coast, no matter where your engine rpms are, as long as the injectors aren't maintaining idle so the engine doesn't stall, you are using no fuel. What I mean by that is at 3k rpm, with no foot on the gas coasting, you are using no gas. But if you are in neutral, and the engine has to give it power so the rpms don't fall below stall speed, you are using gas.

So in a true manual, if you want to save gas you would engine brake all the time. But brake pads are cheaper to replace than motors.

See above response. The car is assuming that you let off the gas so you want to slow down, and engine braking can do that with the least amount of fuel burnt, but yes, it might slow you down quicker than if you just coasted.

al503

Agree that you won't be using any more gas coasting at 3K rpm v. 1K rpm but I believe that there is always a slight amount of gas going into the cylinders under any condition. When I'm coasting at low speeds and the rpm's are just above 1K, my mpg gauge does not go up to 90+ all the time. Some times, it'll vascillate between 30-90.

EBMCS03

Very good feature. I like it a lot and think it actually doesnt hold the gear enough and doesnt engine brake enough when I let off the gas.

Anyone try driving the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 or any heavy engine BMW automatic, 8 cylindars or more? When you let off the gas at high RPMs it holds its gear so well and enging brakes soo much it feels like you slammed on the brakes... it'll throw you through the windshield.

duckduck

When I go down my hill, the engine always kicks down a gear when I tap on my breaks. but the best thing i've found out about it, is that it maintains the speed at 45-50mph...it won't go any higher or lower than that. so I never have to worry about speeding =P But if I don't tap on my breaks, my engine won't shift down, and I'll hit up to 65mph if I don't use my breaks.