Well, Silentnoise713, the 2.3L engine in my '08 GT (5-spd manual) has a smooth, quiet, and eager revving motor. I've found myself at times zipping down the highway having gotten caught up in paying attention to traffic only to find that I didn't shift to 5th and wouldn't have noticed other than the tach was a lot higher than it should have been. Beautiful motor.
As far as the higher revs of the manual go, I don't see it as a problem at all. If you take care to do oil changes when you should, the motor will last just as long, no mater the revs. I personally like the higher revs of the manual because it means less downshifting when passing because the motor has more revs.
I'm not sure that fuel economy is adversly affected either on the highway with the higher revving manual. My '08 has 105,000km on it now and most of them have been on the highway going 100-120km/hr. Wind direction is a way bigger factor in fuel economy than how high the engine revs. I almost think that this engine gets more efficient at using the fuel at higher RPM's. I've tried driving like a senior citizen for full tanks and I've driven fast and hard on others and you might not beleive this, the economy is about the same. When I travel over 120km/h the economy really does take a nose dive, but I don't see much difference at speeds below 120km/hr. I usually get around 8L/100km on the highway. If it's wintertime, or I'm driving hard it gets maybe as bad as 10L/100km. This motor doesn't seem to vary much in the economy that it gets, I find that my 5 is very consistant.
Hope that helps. Oh, by the way I have 215/50-17 tires and it revs about 2950rpm at 100km/h. I know I'm going exactly 100km/h but I have no idea how accurate the tach really is. It doesn't help that there are 4 divisions between 2500 and 3000 rather that 5 (that would have made sense, can't have that haha).
