One question I have is

Is it better to accelerate slowly up the gears to your cruse speed which can take several hundred plus meters to get the better economy at cruse speed or accelerate fairly quickly in a quarter or so of the distance but get to your cruse speed sooner and better economy?

I have tried both ways with my Ocky DSG and I seem to get better results going a little faster to the cruse speed

PS

When I mean cruse speed I mean the speed that you will normally be travelling on for a particular road and not necessary having cruse control on.

The consensus on the websites I've seen is to get up to speed fast (50-75% on accelerator) even skipping a gear from 3rd to 5th.

Each engine has an optimal RPM range where it performs best (compared to petrol use) - Citigo is 2000-2500, I believe.

Coasting with the car in gear vs. coasting in neutral was unknown to me. Keeping it in gear and not accelerating will turn off injection - coasting in neutral will use petrol (this was unknown to me and baffles me a bit).

If you are coasting or decelerating with the car in gear then the engine components are being turned over and the engine will not stall so the fuel injection/ecu will cut all fuel to the engine.

If you put the car into neutral and coast or decelerate then the engine would stall as it is not being tuned over at all so the fuel injection/ecu puts enough fuel in to the engine to keep it at idle speed, just as it would if you sitting at traffic lights for example.

Hope this helps explain why a modern car uses no fuel when it is coasting or decelerating in gear.

I have always been told not to coast in neutral as there is no breaking effect of the engine. Plus if you need to accellerate quickly you have to put it into gear before accellerating which can waist precious time. On the other hand the Citigo will charge the battery when decelerating as the dynamo does not always charge the battery like an alternator does? I don't know if that is all Citigo's or just the green tec versions. But may be wrong?

Edited 25 March, 201313 yr by Owens