Cannot believe its happy at 22 mph in 5th. Dad had a Jazz an the engine was flexilble but not that flexible.

Forget the idiot light on the dash, we managed without them for the best part of a century, don't need them now. Drive in a gear the car feels comfortable in.

The indicators are nonsense.

So the people that designed the engine don't understand the torque curve or the maximum load that the bearings can handle at a given RPM whilst maintaing adequate lubrication?

Most people drive around in too low a gear because they are lazy. They use the engine as a coaster brake because it saves them from switcing pedals and because they can't smoothly downshift if they need to accelerate.

It takes maybe 5 wheel horsepower to maintain 22 MPH on level ground-less than the mechanical power required to spin the engine at 1500 RPM.

5hp at, say, 1250 RPM=21lb.ft of torque. Even for an n/a 1.5 that is about 1/4 of the available torque.

I cruise at very low engine speeds. That's why I get 20% better than official combined economy and most people can't get within 10% below. If you need to accelerate drop straight to third, then move back to fifth. It feels weird at first but does yield dividends in fuel economy.

They do what they say on the tin.

Obviously driving in third at 30 is more convenient-but if you want to chase those mpgs, you have to do your bit.

Another thing to remember in these discussions is that not all cars are geared the same.

It's much better to select the gear for the job in hand rather than slavishly changing gear at a fixed road speed or RPM. Trucks can get by with less than 10hp/tonne at rated output. Even at 1000 RPM you'll have more than that. Select-A-Gear-For-The-Day drivers would be better served by automatics; you wanted 3 pedals-Use them!