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Which speed/gear is the most efficient in my car?
Hey, been gone a while but I finally was not in the middle of something when I got the "hey OLB! we miss you!" email.
So I now have a 1999 Mazda Protege 1.6 MT that I am driving and it's the most fuel efficient car I've owned so far. I love it, except when it doesn't want to go into first when it's cold.
Anyway I understand that ~35MPH is where aero drag starts to dominate other factors as far as efficiency is concerned. Also, after reading a treatise on efficiency from one of the diesel big rig manus (I think it was Freightliner or Volvo), one of the takeaways was the goal was to minimize RPMs per mile.
On this particular car, the highest gear I can get away with at 35 is 4th, and I'm running about 2k RPM. The lowest speed at which I can get away with cruising in 5th is about 43 MPH, also at 2k.
So which is the more efficient speed, assuming I can choose?
TIA!
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