I completely change my driving habits on a regular basis. I am a very spirited driver when I need to be, and I can be the slowest SOB in the right lane when I am in no hurry. I enjoy the trip, the wind, the purr of a well made engine. All of these things sort of pass me by if I am driving 'spirited' as you guys say. There are plenty of times, however, that I must drive fast due to running late. I believe a good mix of both is the real answer, minus fast takeoffs from the stopped position. I believe in any car in any scenereo, one of the worst things for a car is taking off too fast from the stopped position. Even if you wait until you get up to 5-10mph before stepping on it good, it will prevent you from damaging your entire drive train over time.

I am constantly refining how I drive though. Even though I say these things, it's much harder in practice. Especially because where I live, there are many places you can make like 20 car advances in lines by going to a turn lane and flooring it off of a red light. Am I guilty? Absolutely, and I do it more than 50% of the time. I wish I didn't, though. In the very least, I have every intent on fixing this, and the first step is knowing that there is indeed a problem haha.

On my daily commute I take it gently, from a typical 25mpg it's now up to 26-27mpg on a daily grind. However, there are days when, especially after work, you'd like to stretch the car's legs a bit and enjoy a bit of the car's potential. Just a matter of balancing the two in my opinion. After a while, doing one solely than the other gets boring.

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I vary constantly....when I am in no rush and in low speed limit areas I go really slow and keep it to about 1500rpm or less at all times....most of the time I chug along around 1100rpm.

On faster roads or if I am in more of a hurry my tires will be squealing for mercy. It chirps and squeals all the time when I go around corners. Hasn't seemed to have had any negative effect on the car so far, and I've driven it 70k so far. These cars can do a burnout in the wet quite easily if in tune. I've had several occasions around here (very hilly) where I nailed the throttle on a wet hill and it broke loose and squealed a tire. Pretty awesome.

In our "Michigan U-turns" (where you merge into a central lane to turn around and join the opposite side of a split highway) I do powerslides on a fairly regular basis when its wet......

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)