Maybe he’ll learn when that semi truck that couldn’t get over in time uses his car as a hood ornament. Or when someone decides to show him how bad his driving is by swerving in front of him, slamming on his brakes, getting out of the car and starts waving a gun around.
When I was a teen, I couldn’t stand the way my grandfather shifted his pickup truck, he shifted “way too soon” and wouldn’t downshift after going around curves that he had to slow down to 30 mph for, I was certain he was ruining his engine.
But then, long after his death, it finally occured to me that it was he who drove a 30 year old pickup truck, not me. That it was he who never needed to open up his engines, not me. Thus I slowly dropped out of the “you’ll ruin your engine if you don’t drive exactly like me” chicken little brigade.
Today, I don’t rev my engine out unless I really need the horsepower it can make at those high rpm. If I’m not in a hurry to accelerate or there is a loaded 18 wheeler in front of me limiting my acceleration, I’m in 3rd at 20 and in fifth by 40.
If this is hard on engines, my vehicles have had a funny way of showing it. My Kawasaki ZRX motorcycle is about one gas tank away from 100,000 miles and it still burns almost zero oil. My old Geo Metro went over a quarter million miles without needing the engine repaired.
My car has one of those manumatics(autos with the manual option). I’ve done early shifting and found I can be in 5th gear by 35mph and 6th by about 42mph. Do i do this all the time? Nope. Most of the time I leave it in D, but if I’m on the highway and want to pass someone, I’ll move it over to M and shift down to pass someone, get back in 6th when I can, the switch it back to D.
Am I hurting my trans/motor this way? Probably not
As long as you aren’t lugging the engine, I don’t see the harm. I tried shifting that way for a while, but old habits die hard.
If your husband’s aim is to maximize engine life, “babying” it is not exactly the way to go. The ideal way to operate an engine to maximize the life of it is to use it normally, neither pampering it nor abusing it. Keeping things right in the middle is just right. Drive it normally. Besides, it’s a car, new or not. Use it for what you need it for, and enjoy it rather than worrying about it.
Tell him to calm down 
Burning fuel, creating heat, is not directly related to producing power. Your charcoal grill produces a lot of heat but does no work. No work no power.
Lugging the engine, high throttle opening and slow piston speed, is damaging because peak temperature and pressure occurs when the piston is just past TDC. Early in the down stroke the piston does little useful work against the crankshaft. A great deal of the heat in the cylinder is lost through the cylinder head and piston crown. You get a lot of heat and stress without a lot of work. Knock sensors retard the ignition point to past TDC reducing peak combustion pressure, but detonation has to occur before the sensors do their job.
I agree, lugging an engine for 20 miles up the Grapevine hill could (and most likely would) cause damage detectable in an engine teardown BUT lugging and engine 1,000,000 times for 20 second intervals (simulating multiple trips across intersections or between shifts) is not going to leave a “signature” detectable via a teardown.It is long continuous periods of lugging that will cause damage, not multiple extreme short(like 20 second) periods of lugging.
That’s not really a good comparision, since the auto-manuals have electronic safegards to keep from doing things like lugging the engine or performing a downshift that would put the engine speed at the or close to redline. Some of these transmssion will even downshift for you even if you’re in manual mode and you stomp on the gas. The transmission in my parent’s 2010 Highlander does that.
I agree. It is a matter of degree. One possible indication you will find on an engine tear down is light wear on the pistons and heavy wear on the main and connecting rod bearings.
I think VW had the right idea with the original Beetle. On the speedometer, between speed increments were Roman numerals that were the shift points.
I think AAA also had the right idea when during the 60’s they marked the spot on I-5 in CA where it is most likely the engine on your old beetle sucks a valve (along side of this indicator was the telephone number and location of a AAA approved garage)
On the speedometer, between speed increments were Roman numerals that were the shift points.
The idea of having a manual is to have the driver shift without a predetermined shift schedule. That sort of defeats the purpose.
In my xB, same weight and smaller engine, I would shift to 4th before 20. But that’s on level ground and there’s a line of car in front so I have no where to go. The engine seems perfectly fine with that. But as soon as I put my foot down, the engine starts to lug.
Are you sure he isn’t trying to ruin the car? It is a Chevy Aveo5…
It’s quite possible, maybe even probable, that the computer controlled throttle by wire system in many of today’s cars simply will not open the throttle into the lugging zone regardless of the driver’s input.
The shift points on the old Beetle were for people like the OP’s husband. Nothing would keep the driver from shifting when they wanted to.
I drive a five speed with a tach.The tach determines when I shift and what gear I choose to remain in.
I don’t shift into 5th gear until I am going 55mph. Gear ratios and engine design are a big factor .
Cruising at 3000 RPM with an overhead cam engine is different than the same RPM with a pushrod engine.