Since I have no advanced instrumentation to check live MPG readings as I drive and I suspect I'm not "doing it right", decided to come here and ask some advice for those that have experience with higher-revving vehicles.
My current car achieves its max. KW power around 5750rpm according to it's manual and the torque at a quite high 4500rpm. This is significantly higher than my previous cars since it's a 4valve per cylinder engine.
What I've experienced so far is that in city driving it seems to be ok with shifting around 2500-2700rpm or so , falling to 2000-2100rpm for the next gear, by ok I mean it has enough power to move comfortably through traffic without being sluggish. But on the highway, the situation changes, especially in 4&5th gear. Whenever driving on the highway, at around 65-70 mph (the speed limit here is quite low at 100km/h on the highway) if, because of traffic I'm obligated to slow down to let's say 55-60mph (5th gear) the car feels very sluggish and most of the time I shift back to forth. This car really loves going over 3500-4000rpm and that's where I can feel the engine pulling properly although I'm thinking the MPG's drop significantly by doing that. From what I've read on some european VW forums, these engines are a bit heavy on the fuel and it's hard to obtain factory figures on the roads.
Combined with having to switch to the higher octane 98RON plus moving a bit further away from work, it looks I'm looking at doubled fuel costs on this car...
I'm hoping to eventually bring the fuel economy to about 40MPG(6l/100km) or so...
Any thoughts or advice from drivers of similar vehicles on how to best drive this to squeeze the highest MPG's out of it ?
P.S. the reason I switched from my previous car was that it was aging, the AC wasn't functional anymore (Cyprus is HOT !), some oil leaks that seemed to get worse as well as I wanted something a bit more comfortable and spacious.