[andrewwhartion]

> It's well known that accelerating rather quickly to your cruise speed is the optimal strategy for fuel efficiency, hence the reason to switch from 3rd to 5th gear directly.

I don't mean to be pedantic, but I think your logic is backwards here, ie. It's well known that 5th (top) gear is the most fuel efficient, hence the reason to accelerate to it rather quickly (the optimal rate would vary between cars), I think would be more reasonable.

I don't think the cruise speed factors into it, and neither does switching from 3rd to 5th, unless it's part of the strategy to get to 5th faster.

But then again, I never realised that accelerating harder to get to 5th faster is actually more fuel efficient [1], so thanks for the heads up!

[1] http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6827/6-driving-tactics...

[torrent-of-ions]

Low gear is best for acceleration and overall control, high gear best for cruising. So accelerate in 3rd (or 2nd if your car is fun) to cruising speed, put straight in 5th/6th and activate cruise control.

It's a waste of energy and clutch/gearbox actuation to use the in between gears and there's never anything wrong with being in a low gear at any point unless your engine hits the red line.

On most cars fourth gear is really for cruising at a lower speed than is comfortable (or safe) in fifth.

You can also very easily downshift sequentially through the gearbox. Downshifting through several gears takes much more practice to do properly and isn't very useful on the road.

[fnj]

I learned to tease my 4-speed automatic TDI into shifting from 2nd directly into 4th, by accelerating strongly to 40-50 and then abruptly lifting throttle.