[Christ]

It takes about 13 seconds to take the car down to 55 from 70 on a flat stretch, calm day, in gear. If I go over 70, the engine takes hold due to TC lockup.

70-55/13s is close to the 1mph/s decline I'd hope for, but the car is far from a hyper-miler's dream.

I could do 65-55, but I can't really see going under 55, simply b/c of the traffic in the areas that I'll be driving, and the cops that tend to patrol them. They don't mind a little speeding, but going under the speed limit frequently isn't permissable.

(Speed limit is actually 55, 70 is OK by them.)

I wasn't so much worried about whether using neutral will damage the tranny, as the thought that frequent shifting will cause fluid to overheat, and the transmission has it's share of quirks already when unlocking the TC.

In fact, frequent shifting is one of the more common reasons for Chrysler's plastic transmissions to fail. People would leave them in high gear on hilly roads, and allow them to shift into and out of OD as often as they would, which overheated the transmission, causing damage. The company caught a bad reputation b/c of their customer's ill-conceived driving styles.