So forgive me if this was obvious (I'm not too car literate) but driving in low gear and take-off from stop just MURDERS THE FUEL ECONOMY.

If you gently tap it from a stop, shift into 2nd, 3rd and just coast always in gears above usual in traffic you can get 26-30 MPG.

The trick is to never use high rpms (duh) + coast in gears higher than normal for given speed (which is possible in manual mode).


Wow. If I had known during the 30 mile one way to work day for a year commute.

 

Will have to do my unofficial test on this. I think the computer sometimes shifts too early causing the rpm drop so I tend to give it more gas to bring speed back up quicker which creates a downshift then upshift which also contributes to bad mpg. Too bad they dont make actual manual trans cars anymore keeping the rpm's in a certain band gives the driver the perceived torque/power they want while saving gas.