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Old 12-04-2009, 12:00 PM   #2 (permalink)
Daox
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Welcome to the site justjohn. Good to see a fellow Wisconsinite.

Slow acceleration is a good general starters tip. If you slowly accelerate you build up less momentum that you may waste by braking during light to light city driving. However, there are more advanced driving techniques.

75-80% is ideal. You want to keep your rpms low, but engine load high. Unfortunately, with an automatic you get one or the other since you can't control engine rpm, just load. Low load means low rpms and vise versa. So, you have to compromise. Usually, moderate acceleration is what I have found to be best. The exact engine load will differ between vehicle as they are designed differently. That is one area where a scangauge would help out.
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