Coming from an automatic, I've never really focused on my RPM's. However, now driving a manual, I've taken an interest in seeing how RPM's affect MPG's. What I've noticed is that the MPG sweet spot on my non S is between 2,000 to 2,500 RPM's as evidenced by the real time MPG readings. Anything higher (even something like 2,700 RPM's) and my MPG's begin to take a big hit. Given this information, I tend to shift a lot sooner than I otherwise would have. If I didn't have the real time MPG data, I would've been content to coast at around 2,700 to 2,900 RPM's during normal driving. But coasting at lower speeds has taught me that being in a higher gear than natural is better.

Now, if I'm driving at freeway speeds, all this is for not because when I'm at 75 mph, I'm pretty much at 3,000 RPM's.