A lower (taller) final drive will generally result in better mpg cruising on the hwy/fwy. But City, suburban, stop/go it’s highly variable which will result in better fuel efficiency. If the lower (taller) final drive ratio results in lugging and needing to downshift to a lower (shorter) gear and now resulting in technically a higher (shorter) overall gear ratio in comparison you can get worse fuel efficiency.
yes taller, shorter, higher, lower can get confusing when talking about gearing especially in several contexts in the same sentence lol.
For many average people in general fuel efficiency might be a top priority. But I’d suspect to individuals on this forum specifically, performance is more important than fuel efficiency.
