When going down a long hill and you apply the brakes briefly to slow down my Jag, the car will change to down to brake the car without using the brakes. ie. it uses engine braking. In fact the BMW handbook, BMWs do the same thing, makes note of the fact that the car will go to a lower gear to use engine braking to prevent excessive pad wear.

Diesel trucks often use Jacobs Brakes which are exhaust constrictors which are designed to use the engine to brake forward motion of the vehicle during long down hill stretches and prevent brake fade.

Hence I am not sure that using engine braking is such a bad idea, although excessive use may cause wear and tear on the transmission, my guess is that they are designed for a certain amount of use in this fashion.

 

My '11 SC paddle shifters work in "D".

 

My 11 SC used to work in D as well, I had it turned off as my wife would hit the paddles by accident... I prefer it only in sport mode as well. I also had them turn on the "daytime" runnigns lights. They called it Canadien, but it just turns on the headlights when i put it in gear.

 

And the taillights, fortunately. At least if you now have the Canadian setting.

(Canadien would be for Quebec only 8-)

 

Thanks, thats good to know..
I thought they seceded ? <lol>