Quote Originally Posted by MetroAveo
Shifting at 3.4? Sounds a little high. I thought that the sooner you shift, the better mileage you get, because you keep the RPMs constantly low. I guess it could bog it down slightly. I thought that was only an issue in diesel engines. I'll try shifting at about 3K RPM and see what the results are.
The trick is to get the right balance. Not too low, you'll accelerating forever, never get in to closed, where you want to be, or too high, where friction and open loop make the engine gulp gas instead of sipping like in closed loop.