What RPM for cruising around?

[RyanGphoto]

So I notice that around 35mph in 2nd gear I am right at 3,000 rpms and at roughly 46mph I am at 3200rpm or so.. My question is..

What rpm range do you just cruise around town.. do you shift when you are near or above 3,000rpm? Do you wait until 3500rpm? 4,000rpm? I feel like driving around at constantly 4,000rpm sound loud and feels like it's straining the engine (I could be TOTALLY wrong here). Just curious what you guys do?

Thanks
Ryan G

 

[falafel91]

4th gear for 40-50MPH. 2000-2500 RPM
I feel like 2k-3k is the ideal cruising range around 40-50MPH

 

[Beachbum]

Whatever the auto-box decides on

 

[CHEESE]

Something interesting that a lot of people probably haven't noticed (took me a while to notice, at least):

Right near where it shows you what gear you're in on the instrument cluster, there appears a little up-arrow to indicate when you should shift up under normal/cruising driving conditions. I'm guessing it's meant to be optimal for fuel efficiency since it appears at surprisingly low RPMs (even lower than what feels natural).

 

[Nova]

For the V6, normal driving around town is about 2-2.5k if I am maintaining constant speed. My old manual habit is to select the gear that matches the speedometer/10. So so if I am accelerating from 25 to 35, I choose second gear and shift to stay in third gear when I am done.

Lower than 2k, I feel like the engine can be lugging a bit, plus you get the manual transmission lashing sound below 2K. Above 3K, just driving around, on/off throttle will jerk the car a bit too much to my liking. I can't imagine driving around at 4K for constant speed cruising. I would only be doing it if I had downshifted and is waiting for a chance to change lanes and speed up.

 

[ADC]

For the V6, normal driving around town is about 2-2.5k if I am maintaining constant speed. My old manual habit is to select the gear that matches the speedometer/10. So so if I am accelerating from 25 to 35, I choose second gear and shift to stay in third gear when I am done.

Lower than 2k, I feel like the engine can be lugging a bit, plus you get the manual transmission lashing sound below 2K. Above 3K, just driving around, on/off throttle will jerk the car a bit too much to my liking. I can't imagine driving around at 4K for constant speed cruising. I would only be doing it if I had downshifted and is waiting for a chance to change lanes and speed up.

Not hugely dissimilar from my rule of thumb - my brain aligns gears (at cruising speed) to the common speed limits over here:
20 -> 2nd gear
30 -> 3rd gear
40 -> 4th gear
etc

This simple mental mapping is nice and easy IMO.

Basically I just aim for not being a noisy berk around town, and not lugging the engine. Of course, once I come to a 50+ zone that isn't built up, it's often 2nd gear to redline, and then a brief shuffle through 3/4/5 to cruise again