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American Drivers Think Speeding Is Okay Because Everyone Else Is Doing It
(www.jalopnik.com)
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this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Hot weather does not help with fuel economy precisely because you have to turn on AC (or arrive at your destination a sweaty mess, everyone will LOVE that smell).
Mild weather helps a lot with fuel economy though, engine still warms up faster compared to the winter and you don't need AC.
That can't be too good for your engine's health unless you have a fairly short 5th gear (e.g if you have 6 or more gears anyway or just a short final drive). Most of my manuals have been 5 speed manuals and they aren't too happy in 5th at 50 km/h.
Since you mentioned below that it's a diesel, that will cause real issues over a few hundred thousand. I had to clean turbo vanes on a 415k km 1.9 tdi, all gunked up from eco-driving. Vanes don't get exercised and they don't get any proper heat either. You'd ideally want to be cruising around 2000 rpm and you should be using most of your rev range, not just the bottom end.
Seriously, that’s why I always just accepted the approximation of 45mph …. The lowest speed you can smoothly drive in the top gear.
But you can hear when the engine is going too slow, when you’re potentially causing more harm than good. Anyone using a standard transmission knows where their shift points are and intentionally going significantly below that is counterproductive