[wagonman76]

It helps me quite a bit to accelerate briskly, enough to quickly get into the highest gear for the speed I am going to go. Mpg loss is pretty significant when spinning the engine faster in a lower gear. I also notice that accelerating slowly in a lower gear, and accelerating briskly in a lower gear, get very close to the same mileage, so it makes sense to get up to speed faster and out of the lower gears.