Car Service Tips

#11 Skipping Gear Changes

Compared to an automatic gearbox, manual cars already enjoy an advantage of a slightly better fuel economy.

In relation to gear changes there is a technique called block gear changing that can assist drivers of manual cars to further improve fuel consumption. It may not be easy at the start, but with practice will become earlier and second nature. This technique is commonly used by motorcyclists.

What is Block Gear Changing?

Block gear changing is where you carefully skip gears when changing up through the gears. That is you may go from 1st to 3rd to 5th, skipping 2nd and 4th gears. There is a trick to this. Make sure you don’t go too high up in the RPM range in the lower gear, or too low down in the upper gear. If you go too high in the lower gear, then excess petrol is consumed for marginal benefit. If you go too low in the higher and the engine will labour and consume more petrol. The good news is that for newer cars with 6 and 7 speed boxes, block gear changing is much easier.