Greybrick wrote:
I usually run about 65 mph highway speed but I've noticed that the mpg trip calculator will read better fuel economy at inner city freeway speeds of about 50 to 55 mph.
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Interesting read, but I'm with boogyman. While mpg is important, protecting my own life is far more important to me, which means I'll be driving with the flow of traffic. We have quite a few sections of city streets that are posted 50mph, which means most go 60. The freeways within the city are posted 65mph, but everyone drives 70-80. The freeways 5 miles outside of the city are posted at 75mph, but of course everyone goes 80-90. And since nothing is close, I'll gladly go over the speed limit if it will shave a few hours off the total driving time. I do NOT have fond memories of the 55mph national speed limit, as every trip took bloody forever. As I've mentioned before though, my best mpg has been while driving over 75mph with a fully loaded (inside and out) vehicle. The slowest highways are posted at 65mph (Utah, Nevada, etc), but I have yet to get better mileage driving them. I do know that my older cars had a sweet spot around 55 or 60, meaning they were in the RPM zone & still had a bit of extra power on tap for passing or whatever. The Pathfinder doesn't feel like it's anywhere near it's sweet spot at 55 or 60.