2015 Corolla Le Plus Eco - Sluggish Acceleration Onto Highway

When I first got my 2015 LE Plus Eco, I was concerned about mileage. No more; I am now getting 35mpg combined -- right on the money of what's expected.

My problem is that merging onto highways is taking my life in my hands. The acceleration is SO SLUGGISH!! I figured out to turn the Eco mode off when merging from entrance ramps, but when I really hit the gas, the tach goes up to 4. Is that normal? It seems like this car takes a lot of effort to get it up to highway speed quickly (a must when driving among crazy NJ drivers). Any tips?

Sounds about right - has a CVT transaxle, so it should will race to the optimal RPM and stay there until the engine load decreases. I think 4K RPM is where the peak torque is on that particular engine. Remember, this is no torque monster, only have 1.8L to work with displacement wise and the engine is optimized for fuel economy - so it will have to windup to get any power to the ground.

No real tips - just try and anticipate where holes will open up in traffic and start standing on the accelerator earlier than you are used to.