DieselDog, I would agree that downshifting and upshifting is very necessary during driving over the road, especially where the terrain has lots of ups and downs and the car is not blessed with a lot of HP. I guess where I was told and where I tend to agree that downshifting is over done, is in the case of straight line speed reductions for stop signs and stop lights. You are going to stop, and the engine braking obtained is not that big a deal. The case where you are just slowing down for a hard right turn is another example of a strong need to downshift and with straight cut teeth and no synchros it takes a lot of practice.

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1961 190Db retired
1968 220D/8 325,000
1983 300D 164,150