The vehicle longitudinal dynamics is responsible for calculating the vehicle power consumption undergone a specific route, by means of the estimation of the forces acting on the system such as aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, climbing resistance and the driver behavior. The gear shifting tactics influences the vehicle performance and fuel consumption because it changes the powertrain inertia and the engine speed. The literature presents gear-shifting strategies based on the engine power and torque as well as the fuel economy. The last tactics are difficult to determinate, because they depend on a large number of factors like vehicle speed, available transition ratios, engine efficiency, required acceleration, tire-ground traction limit and engine decoupling during the gear shifting process. This paper shows a study based on the Brazilian standard urban driving cycle NBR6601. As there are many factors involved in the vehicle behavior and also in the vehicle dynamics, it was developed an algorithm to optimize the gear shifting process: it makes a choice of the most adequate tactic for each cycle stretch. The analysis were performed by co-simulation between the multibody dynamics software Adams TM and Matlab/Simulink TM , in which is defined the vehicle power demand.