Shift points won't change mpg's as much as throttle position.

Are you guys not going above 4k rpms or what

Yep! On a regular basis!!!

If I drive conservatively it's 3.5k and below. Anything above that and it's a noticeable decrease. The shift indicator is way too early and thinks the world is flat.

The trick is keeping it above the torque dip. After all the low torque is indicative of inefficiency and that's like the opposite of what you want for good mpg's, right?

If you want the best mileage, you have to think like a modern AT. It upshifts as soon as it possibly can to keep the RPMs as low as possible. If you're waiting until 4k (or even 3k) RPM, that's too high.

Around town in regular traffic I regularly upshift at 2000-2200. That gives adequate acceleration and does not bog down the engine.

To equate it to MPH I go:

1st to 2nd: almost immediately (and don't even leave second for a rolling stop)
2nd to 3rd: 12-15mph
3rd to 4th: 19-20
4th to 5th:28-30
5th to 6th: 38-40

The reality is, from a dead stop I often skip-shift first to third, third to sixth; from a rolling start it's second to fourth, fourth to sixth. Again, this is on mostly level terrain, in regular traffic. On any given tank of gas I still get after it when the spirit moves me and I still do 70-75 on the highway, but the rest of the time that's how I shift and I maintain a steady 30-32 mpg.

This isn't true. RPM is not a good indicator of engine load by itself. It's a good metric to use in shifting, especially with matching the output shaft and input shaft (the main purpose of a tach). Shifting at 3k-4k rpms will, all other things considered, give you better miles per gallon than trying to lug the thing around. I'll explain why in one sentence:

Throttle position is WAY more important- if you're lugging it all the time, you're consuming extra gas.



Anyone who has owned a turbo-charged car will know exactly what this entails

Boooooorrrrrring

P.S. I added 2 to 3 MPG from switching stock tune to OFT's off-the-shelf 91 octane Stage 1 tune.

So excited about that. I am seeing 30-31mpg on the car, up from 27-29mpg averages (typically was 27mpg)

http://www.fuelly.com/car/scion/fr-s/2014/07Vios/287038

Slowly accelerating, camping in the slow lane (when possible). LOL. I'd rather spend/save money for parts than on gas =P

Primarily freeway driving, but I deal with Cali's Bay Area traffic daily (so I would say equivalent to 50/50 city/freeway driving).

I'd just confuse things as we have a different sized gallon! I think we both use imperial miles though (or do you guys use statute miles?)

I 'can' get 42mpg with highway cruising. I 'can' get 35mpg commuting in mixed traffic, but usually it's around 29-31mpg.

However that spread shows that it really depends on how and where you drive the car!

Apparently stating twice "Level ground" ie "average conditions" wasn't enough so I'll state it a third time:

Under average conditions on level surfaces in regular traffic.

No where did I say this is what happens every time, all the time, regardless of the world around me. This is for tooling over to the grocery store for a gallon of milk. That is not how I drive on a track day or how I even drive merging onto the highway.

This method does not "lug" the engine in anyway in those general circumstances. If the conditions are not appropriate for a low RPM upshift, wait until a higher RPM. Yes, throttle position matters and that is taken into consideration.

Also, I'm glad people driving turbos have an apparently better understanding. I think the most important thing to understand is: we're not driving a turbo.


This I can respect even if I don't agree. :respekt: I personally enjoy the fact that I can be comfortably boring in general and have a blast on the track once a month.

That being said I chuckle when folks complain about our low 0-60 times but insist on hammering it from every stop light anyway. You bought the wrong car if you only get your kicks "a quarter mile at a time". :D

Not sure if it's been mentioned becasue TL;DR but the MPG number on the dash computer is directly and entirely related to the throttle % and nothing else. So if your number is low, your foot is heavy. Period.

Don't believe me? Tune for E85. Computer average stays the same but real world MPG's are 5-8mpg lower.