Well put. Put the load on the cheapest system. Anyone who thinks that
there's no penalty in engine braking hasn't thought it through. In a
diesel, there's no such thing anyway, and I don't notice any more wear
on my westy brakes (and it's heavier) than my gasser. That may change
now that it's a turbo, though.

Jim

> Paraphrasing: In the process of decelleration the
> energy has to be absorbed somewhere, and that decelleration is
> inevitably
> going to result in wear on the system doing the work. Here you have a
> choice: downshift, or brake. Now, ask yourself, does it seem better to
> choose to direct that wear into the engine and transmission, the most
> complicated and expensive to repair parts of the car; or into the
> brakes,
> which are probably the cheapest and easiest to maintain system, and
> are even
> designed for that task in the first place?
>