Should You Downshift When Braking in a Manual Car?

[VanLaila]

Manual cars require downshifting when braking to continue driving. Downshifting timing on flat roads: For example, when driving at 60 km/h in 4th gear and noticing a red light at an intersection, immediately brake to decelerate. If the vehicle ahead has already stopped, downshifting is unnecessary; simply control the brake to let the car coast to a stop. If after decelerating, you need to follow the slow-moving traffic ahead, then shifting to a lower gear is required. Without downshifting, the original 4th gear would make it impossible to follow the traffic after deceleration. If the light turns green just after decelerating and the road ahead is clear, with the engine RPM still around 1500, you can directly press the accelerator to proceed. However, if the engine RPM has dropped to around 1000, you must downshift one gear to smoothly accelerate forward. Downshifting timing when descending: The above scenarios are based on flat roads. When descending a slope, if the engine RPM is above 1000, you can directly downshift one gear and then accelerate to proceed.