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The prior owner did more highway driving than I do. When I bought the car w/about 85K on it, his shop told me his prior 9000 had the brakes changed for the first time at 114K.
My driving is a mix of highway and lots of city (almost taxicab duty) with lots of turnarounds and backing up.
I really miss the extra oomph of a bit more hp/torque especially at the lower speeds; I end up shifting much more in these situations than I used to do with my last car (a '90 5spd Acura Legend w/2.7 V6) which came off the road at 200K due to the amount of regular maintenance it was due for (it came due for the first clutch, 4 tires, 4 brakes, timing belt, waterpump, a/c charge, some front end work, and the windshield and headlights were both getting sandblasted from 12years & 200K miles. It was still running great and dependably, but wasn't worth the $3000 or so it would take to get up to speed.)
My experience is that if you are not tailgating, and anticipating traffic movement, you don't have to brake nearly as often or hard. I don't tend to brake w/the clutch, but do shift down.
If you shift down properly, you don't wear the clutch. It just involves keeping the engine revs up to the right meshing point so that the clutch can be engaged on the downshift with no appreciable lurch or jump in engine speed. Then the engine is taking the braking forces, not the clutch.
It is part of the reason the t7 software which doesn't let the car immediately go back to idle when you are driving and shifting. Personally, I don't like that "feature", which is counter intuitive to my experience, but I have become used to it. I believe it also reduces emissions not to have the on off effect with the gas.
Some people insist on downshifting by dropping to the lower gear and "popping" the clutch. The car will jerk, the engine race, and that type of downshift is very hard on the clutch!
posted by 151.199.45...
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