Question for you three pedal guys...
 

You ever find yourself skipping gears? I drive the same back roads (45 -55 MPH) back and forth to work 4 times a day. Lately, I’ve been going from 3rd to 5th and 4th to sixth.

Pros? Cons?

Quite often. The pros are mostly fuel economy related, altho it also means I can settle in sooner on longer drives. Frankly, once I'm up to driving speed, I see no point in rowing thru the rest of the gears.
As far as cons, my only problem is when I'm driving "spiritedly". I sometimes catch myself having to choose where to shift to, rather than shifting by rote.


Kirk B.

All the time. I also coast quite a bit, clutch out in neutral. On the way home from work I get a little over a km coasting at idle downhill on the highway.

The smarter auto-boxes skip shift as well, from what I understand. I have heard it referenced as shift strategy. Fuel economy is the goal. The sooner you get into the OD gears, the better for MPG.

That being said, I have heard that engine braking is actually more effective than coasting due to the fact that the injectors actually shutoff while engine braking as opposed to maintaining idle when you're coasting in neutral with the clutch in.

Back when I was still rowing through the gears on a daily basis (over a decade ago now... dang!), I frequently skipped from 4th to 6th when merging on to a freeway and getting up to the speed of traffic. This was in a unmodified NB Miata that had a lot less torque and horsepower to get me going. If my Z was a manual, the 3rd to 5th and 4th to 6th sequence would be how I would shift in the same situation. Technically, you can do it with the Z34/Jatco AT in Sport mode (which I use most of the time on surface streets and canyon carving), but I find myself not so much skipping gears, but instead just staying out of the top two gears unless I'm cruising over 55-60 mph.

How about floating through the gears in a synchronized manual transmission?

I do it all the time. There are no cons to doing this except as someone mentioned. I also find myself losing track of which gear to select when driving fast. But overall, no issues.

You've probably blown the clutch. Time for an upgrade!

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Nothing wrong with skipping gears as long as the revs are matched. If they are higher than necessary, you might be burning your clutch.

Otherwise, when coasting, better to be in gear off the throttle than in neutral - it spends less gas.

I knew I was going to get one smartarse answer... I also figured it would be from you. How’s it going ole pal? Did you see someone stole your nym? :eek:

Actually, that was a concern because I was using the clutch too much. I keep it in sport mode (Rev matching) and don’t bog it. It’s really just laziness and trying to save a couple of bucks in gas and wear and tear by revving every gear.

Wasn’t sure if I was helping or hurting....

who stole my copy of new york magazine?!

Lots of answers I just drive the Z, not concern about gears, actually when going through slow areas - cities I keep it in 5th. But I usually like shifting gears regardless of gas prices. Then again the Z is not the daily.

My daily is a Miata and I do short shift and change gears a lot, but mostly it is for having the right gear to pickup and go..

I suppose this may be true depending on your speed, but I find it hard to believe that I'm burning more fuel coasting at 500 rpm in neutral than I am coasting in 6th at 2500 rpm over a kilometer.

I only really skip gears going down, not up. Rarely I will go from 3 to 5 on a downhill 35mph street.

It's quite simple actually. Modern engines when above 1500rpm or so, when off the throttle, they burn NO gas. They are effectively turned off. You are in neutral (at 700 or whatever rpm), and however little, you do burn fuel to keep the engine running. It doesn't have anything to do with speed. There is however a little bit more resistance from the engine than when in neutral and the car will be slowing down a bit faster than when in neutral.