Ridiculous shit installed in new cars ...

[NSP]

I don't know about the ridiculous shit they install in German cars but some of it is clearly shit if the two movies I've just watched, heavy on crash-bash car chases, are anything to go by.

Heavily featuring hard-crashing Audis and BMWs and not one airbag deployed.

 

[bobthebuilder]

I always understood coasting to be the same as freewheeling - allowing the vehicle to use its momentum to carry you along with the gearbox in neutral. IIRC it is verboten in the highway code. Clearly you need to be in the correct gear for engine braking to be effective (or have an exhaust brake). My car has 162k miles on it, still the original clutch and I use engine braking every day, it's a big nasty 4x4 so if it was going to suffer premature clutch wear, I think it would have happened before now.

I learnt to drive on a Saab 96 which had a lever that disengaged the drive on the over run, allowing it to freewheel. The 96 started life as the 2-stroke 94. 2-stroke cars couldn’t be allowed to over-run as the engine relied on the oil in the fuel mixture for lubrication. When you lift your foot off the throttle and use engine breaking, there’s little to no fuel entering the cylinders. In a 2-stroke that would be disastrous.

Saab kept it on in the the 96, which had a 4-stroke. IIRC it was better on snow and ice.