MPG / Snow Mode

[lightpainter]

In a effort to improve on my 23MPG I have been driving with the Snow Mode on all the time, my thinking behind this is, car pulls away in a higher gear and the changes are made at lower revs.
Do you think that I could be doing any damage to my car?

[clf]

Funny I had been thinking same thing. It changes gear the way I use to on my old cars when I would do economy runs. Although I used to short shift at even lower revs lol. It didn't do my passats any harm. Although I only kept then for around 30000 miles each.

Only thing I could foresee, is egr and maybe pcv filter clogging a little quicker,if you drove permanently like this. But change filters and oil regularly and bypass egr and I don't think that would be am issue.

[David3807]

I have wondered this myself but have not tested it out. But thinking about it 'Snow' mode starts the car in second gear and I would guess that this could give rise to increased fluid 'slip' in the auto box - and more slip is more wasted fuel.

Plus the fact that Rover refer to the normal drive position as economy in some places which presumeably means they expected better MPG in that mode rather than either of snow or sport.

Will be interested to know if you do get any improvement

[bl52krz]

Using snow mode will not damage the autobox, but may alter the way the box changes down in various traffic situations.

[klarzy]

Surly this is still energy in - energy out...?

If you pull away in second you need more torque at low revs, how do you get more torque?, why add more fuel sir

I have always thought the best way to improve economy was to drive with minimal braking, if you can cruise you are just topping up the cars existing momentum, if you are accelerate brake, accelerate brake then you are just heating the atmosphere with your brake disks and that energy comes from your fuel tank...