[SinnopS]

I am really enjoying driving this car in manual mode, expecialy when slowing down/stoping. Now, it wont hurt anything to decelerate by just downshifting and not using the breaks right? Doing this of course shoots up the RPMs when i drop it down a gear which should be fine for the motor and save on the break wear

 

[TellyDSP]

I dont think downshifting is a problem, but I'd say use the brakes. If your RPM's are "shooting" up, it sounds like you're downshifting too soon. I downshift, but also use my brakes and make sure that I downshift smoothly. If your feeling a jerk/jolt forward when you downshift, you're putting unecessary wear on your tranny. Even though the car is set up not to let you do anything damaging, I wouldn't make a habit out of it. I think it's just a nice balance of downshifting and braking to make you and your car happy.

My .02
Craig

 

[dinu01]

http://mazda3forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2474