Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site pucc-h
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!pucc-j!pucc-h!ags
From: ags@pucc-h (Dave Seaman)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Less Is More?
Message-ID: <2549@pucc-h>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 14:27:48 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.2549
Posted: Thu Jan  9 14:27:48 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Jan-86 07:22:58 EST
References: <25300019@gypsy.UUCP>
Reply-To: ags@pucc-h.UUCP (Dave Seaman)
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 31

In article <25300019@gypsy.UUCP> rtd@gypsy.UUCP writes:
>Now, the owner's manual for my '86 Celica (5 spd. manual transmission)
>states that to maximize fuel efficiency, you should get into as high
>a gear as possible as soon as possible.
>
>Three questions come to me from all this:
>
>  1. If the engine is running at 2500 RPM, what difference does it
>     make what gear I'm in or how fast the car is moving?

Fuel efficiency is measured in miles per gallon, not revolutions per gallon.
Upshifting sooner gets you more miles for a given number of revolutions.
The higher gear is likely to give you fewer revolutions per gallon (because
of wind resistance) but more miles per gallon.

>  2. If Toyota says that going faster saves fuel, and the U.S. Gov't.
>     says that going slower saves fuel, who is right?

If Toyota said anything about going faster, you did not include it in
your quote.

>  3. If rapid starts and quick acceleration wastes fuel (another
>     U.S. Gov't. contention) then how can up-shifting as quickly
>     as possible save fuel?

Most people can upshift sooner without resorting to rapid starts and 
quick acceleration.  Toyota is saying that you should upshift as soon 
as you reach the appropriate RPM, not that you should try to reach the
appropriate RPM sooner.
-- 
Dave Seaman	  					pur-ee!pucc-h!ags