so in a manual if you are moving down a hill in first gear and your rpms go up, is your engine burning lots of gas? WOuld it be more fuel efficient to put it into neutral or 5th gear and use the brake?

If it is illegal to ride down a hill in neutral sorry, please tell me and ill edit it.

 

Whenever the RPMs are up, yes your burning more fuel. If your going down a hill in first and the RPMs are up you shift to a higher gear, and use the brakes more or just continue to engine brake.
Engine braking can be very useful to help out your brake while going down hills or if you need to stop fast.
I use engine braking all the time on my dirt bike while going down near verticle hills, it really helps.

 

I really don't drive... since i don't have my license yet but i'd say to you that you should try to be around 3500rpm +/- some. It would probably give SOME braking power and still not use too much gasoline

 

it would be more fuel efficient to put it in a higher gear and keep the rpms lower. i wouldn't suggest putting it into neutral that's like turning your car into a 2400-something lbs. piece of metal rolling down the hill. it just depends if you'd like to keep the rpm higher and let the engine brake more or keep the rpm lower and use your brake pedal more.

 

That depends on your personal interpretation of the law, regarding the "driver must remain in control of vehicle at all times" phrase. I don't think it's illegal to coast in neutral in a passenger vehicle, although possibly in tractor trailers.

 

I'm afraid that some of the previous posters aren't aware of how the FIT operates when going downhill in gear w/o any throttle applied. This is called "Coasting in Gear" (CIG). In this situation the fuel injectors are shut off completely and you are using ZERO gas and getting INFINITE MPG. Better MPG than putting it in neutral and running the engine at idle.
The engine is essentially operating as an air compressor to retard your speed, which is a good thing.

By the way, this is not unique to the FIT. Most all fuel injected cars produced fodr the past decade operate this way.

... Craig in Colorado

 

+1........

 

You're right, however you'd still be using the transmission to assist in slowing down the car (example: coasting to a stop sign at the bottom of a hill) - and it's up to each owner to decide if they'd rather take it easier on the trans or the brakes.

 

I think you are better engine braking than going neutral, despite high RPM. When your car is high RPM and your throttle is zero, there is no fuel being injected

When your RPM is <900, whether or not you gas or engine brake, the throttle automatically opens to avoid idling.

Remember when thinking of high RPM you also have to consider throttle. This is true whether you want to talk about torque, gas usage, horsepower. When people say high RPM in terms of torque/gas mileage/hp, it's referring to lead footing the gas pedal.

IN other words, you save gas engine braking (as long as the RPM is above 900. heel toe and downshift to keep the RPM from going too low)
I also want to add honda automatics can enjoy this luxury! all new honda ATs have locking torque converters, so you can coast in gear. Some cars like CRV will engine brake/downshift automatically when going downhill. I know my mom's RDX you must use paddles to downshift going downhill. The honda AT wont' downshift on its own, but fortunately you can use paddles or the shifter to 1, 2, 3, for the base model.