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Old 01-15-2012, 03:45 PM   #4 (permalink)
tumnasgt
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Wellington, NZ
Posts: 158

The Charger - '15 BMW i3
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My first suggestion would be that if you're travelling at 100km/h+ you're going too fast. Most cars tend to do best in the 80-90km/h range, so if you can safely go that slow, it's worthwhile.

At 100km/h it takes 6 minutes to travel 10km, at 90km/h it takes only 40 seconds longer. If you're commuting 20km, that's less than 2 minutes added to the trip, and the slow lanes tend to have less sudden changes in speed (at least in NZ anyway), further improving fuel economy.

As for gear changing, I would recommend staying below 3000rpm unless you need the power (eg merging with fast traffic or overtaking a very slow vehicle). Like your car, my Camry has very little power below 3000rpm, I try to avoid going over 3000 unless it's unavoidable, as in not doing so would result in exposing myself or others to danger, or in the case of steep hills, I wouldn't make it to the top at more than a snails pace.
Doing so has meant that passengers often comment on how smooth my driving is, and not being stressed about going fast has also made driving in traffic much less stressful.

Best of luck,
Tom
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