Quote:
Originally Posted by ctrlz
At any rate, you can continue to slow the car by downshifting and enjoy the sounds. I personally would never do this on a regular basis because: 1) downshifting only uses 2 wheels to slow the car, whereas brakes use 4 wheels; and, 2) downshifting like this will save the brakes at the expense of prematurely wearing the clutch. This is the fundamental reason not to downshift: brakes are much cheaper to replace than a clutch.
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Downshifting as a replacement for using the service brakes to come to a stop is
not a normal reason for downshifting (though you might want to use the technique should the car's brakes actually fail).
One reason you would downshift is to put the transmission in a gear better suited to an upcoming need for acceleration that doesn't involve coming to a full stop first. IOW, predicting what gear you'll be wanting ahead of time instead of reacting to acceleration that's unsatisfactory (or all the way into 'lugging').
Another reason would be for speed control on the kind of long downgrades you don't see very often in the southern and coastal areas of NJ - if for no other reason than the fact that continuously lit brake lights won't tell the driver behind you that you suddenly stepped on the brakes even harder.
If downshifting alone is the reason for anybody prematurely wearing out the clutch, they're doing it wrong.
Norm