Which action negatively impacts your vehicle's fuel economy?

Which action negatively impacts your vehicle's fuel economy?

• A. Sitting in too low of a gear (causes the motor to bog down)
• B. Using double clutching (causes the RPMs to drop too low)
• C. Downshift too early (causes the RPMs to jump up)
• D. Using heel-toe acceleration technique (causes gears to slip)

Answer: (B)

Double clutching is the action that hurts fuel economy. It adds extra steps to shifting—rev-matching and using the clutch multiple times—which takes longer and often pushes the engine to higher RPMs during each shift. Those additional revs burn more fuel, so fuel economy drops over a trip. In modern synchronized transmissions, this technique isn’t needed for efficiency and, when used, wastes more fuel compared to smooth, quick shifts. The other options either involve things that don’t inherently waste fuel or, when done correctly, can keep momentum and be neutral or even beneficial for efficiency.

Double clutching is the action that hurts fuel economy. It adds extra steps to shifting—rev-matching and using the clutch multiple times—which takes longer and often pushes the engine to higher RPMs during each shift. Those additional revs burn more fuel, so fuel economy drops over a trip. In modern synchronized transmissions, this technique isn’t needed for efficiency and, when used, wastes more fuel compared to smooth, quick shifts. The other options either involve things that don’t inherently waste fuel or, when done correctly, can keep momentum and be neutral or even beneficial for efficiency.