'common'? When I was a young'n, I was taught that that was basically an emergency procedure to use if the brakes failed, to force the car to slow down. I can't imagine wanting to do that routinely.

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mnw21cam 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

If you drive down any significant hill, you either use engine braking, or you overheat your brakes. It's a fairly basic part of driving tuition and the driving test for a good reason.

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morkalork 2 days ago | parent [-]

When I visited a nearby observatory it was fun driving on the mountain and seeing the signs telling you to use engine braking on the way down and trying it for the first time.

	▲	mnw21cam 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		?! - I'm clearly missing something because I'm failing to understand how people don't know about engine braking or have just tried it for the first time, and actually have a licence. It's approximately lesson number four in typical driving tuition.

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whycome 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

My car (an old Jetta) lasted ~20 years and was still good to go when I got rid of it. Only the body itself had any issues. I suppose the use would vary based on terrain? It was useful to get to a gear with more torque for taking off again. And I guess you’re not doing it from really high revs — so it was just using the engine to slow things