I was driving my 07 HHR LT 2.4 5 speed down town Cincinnati to day. as i was shifting when the HHR hit 3000 rpm's. the question came to me to asked you guy when do you shift? I've only drive Japanese cars and trucks with 4 and 5 speed they work different, the long 3rd gear. so when it the best rpm to shift the HHR for performance and when do you shift for best MPG. thanks guys

 

If mpg i shift around 2k.

 

Unless a given car has a HORRIBLE drop off near redline shift near redline with a little time between clutch and throttle, in somecases if your good and willing to take the life of the clutch/transmission in your hands, powershift it. The point is, having as little drop off RPM as you can get and the faster your going the higher you will be in the RPM range on the upshift which will be able to use that power to keep the accent going.

As for gas milage, I keep the RPMs below 2k and try to skip shift as much as possible. My HHR is an auto but my old 2000 Hyundai Accent I would do 1st, 3rd, and 5th (5spd). My 2002 Trans am M6 I do 1st, 4th, and depending on in town 5th or highway right to 6th and keep it in the 65-70 mph range.

The PCM will monitor many sensors and will take that data and put fuel where needed so keeping the RPM down limits the air coming in, and tells the PCM to hold off on the fuel. I have not seen a factory 2.2L A/F ratio and I am not sure if its set to a lean cruise tune or if that needs to be done by the tuner but the car is "safe" being 15 to 1 A/F since your not in Wide Open Throttle (WOT), and once you go 100% WOT, it would command the correct A/F for what the car needs.

So moral of the story, keep your foot out of it, and keep the RPMs down with in reason (not too low to stress the clutch) and you will get pretty good MPG for a car that has the aerodynamic capabilities of a "Brick"

Just my 2 cents!

 

Type of road plays a part of this also. You can shift earlier on flat roads or down hill, verses up hill.

That being said, in my area it's usually between 2000-3300 rpm. 3000 is about average.

 

My one five speed is an 87 Fiero GT (bought new) and I'll shift at maybe 2500 rpm. The engine will cruise comfortably at 2000 rpm or less and I have no need to push a 26 year old car with 140K+ miles on it. I no longer push my cars with high revs. Although my '06 HHR (2.4 auto), when pushed will see 6500 rpm before shifting. I don't do that too much as I plan on keeping the car for a few more years (112K miles on the clock now).

 

Thank you all for the feed back on my post. i will work with the info given and my HHR will run better longer, as long as i keep the red line shifts down.