Jakex1

clutch in + brake in at the same time all the way to the stop (basically braking in neutral) will lead to quicker brake wear. not a lot but still.

and cycling through the gears can be hard/annoying as well.

the best middle ground is to break in w.e gear you are in STAY IN GEAR and when the needle starts to hit 1.2~ clutch in and brake. DONT LET THE REVS DROP TOO MUCH, then you are lugging the engine.

if you hit 1.2~ on high gear and there is still a decent amount of room before the full stop, drop down 2 gears or so and repeat the process.

Mike

iTrader: (1)

If you KNOW you're coming to a stop, then you can just brake and clutch when you're going slow enough that the engine will start to fight the braking (e.g. clutch around 700 RPM).

I typically downshift as I'm braking as a safety precaution, but this comes at the cost of extra wear and tear on your trans. (#3) The reasoning behind this is that unless I'm completely stopped, I'm still in gear and have power IMMEDIATELY available if I need to make an emergency maneuver or get out of the way of someone behind me. (Can you tell I've been rear ended a few times? )

At a light, you can sit in neutral, or you can clutch in and sit in gear. Neutral is less wear and tear on your car, but if you need to move quickly, you have more things to do before you can get power down to the ground. ( Sitting in neutral doesn't wear the clutch. Rather, you're putting extra stress on your main bearings, the bearings on your crankshaft.)

All this "extra wear and tear" in unlikely to manifest itself in less than 100k miles, so its not something to worry about unless you know you're going to keep the car for the long haul.

MSCA

iTrader: (3)

Sitting at a light in neutral, or sitting at a light with the clutch engaged and the transmission in gear will not have any impact whatsoever on putting "extra stress" on the main bearings.

The only difference in those two scenarios is extra wear on the throwout bearing, which is obviously part of the clutch assembly.

fkat

I agree with this one. Every time you clutch you are wearing it down. Just coast and brake. Yes there is wear on pads but that's what they're for.

Mikenicco

I pretty much cruise in 5th gear(i dont like 6th, except on highway.) To stop I'll downshift two gears and stay in 3rd then use my brakes to come to a stop. Around 1000-700 rpms clutchin and get into netural. I never sit at the light with the car in gear and the clutch in. Mainly because the Red lights in florida are sooooo long.

AUC2MIC

How would you be bogging the engine when you are slowing down only?

dainjarouz

iTrader: (4)

i dont know the exact term to use, maybe its not bog, but you know when youre in a higher gear than you should be for the speed...it can be bad.

ucla bruin

iTrader: (7)

Same, down shift down to 3rd, brake, clutch in when almost at a dead stop. If it's a green light right hand turn, down shift down to 2nd through the turn.
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GordoNx3o9

Same here.

Blackjack

iTrader: (3)

With my feet...

tokyo_gaijin

Haven't drove a manual for a while, but from what I remember:
If it's a soft stop: just stay in your current gear, press on brake, when RPM gets low, step on clutch and come to full stop. If you are in high gear, might wanna shift to lower. I don't know what G's manual gear ratios are, so I can't really tell you which one.

If it's a hard stop, you need to go through gears with rev matching. that's frigging difficult btw.

Emergency: Clutch + brake all the way.

Trincap

OK, I'm not trying to be a jerk here but I'll just throw out that I used to teach this stuff on the track so I'm not coming from left field (trying to avoid the instant insults)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Your question has several answers. The "correct" way? The "best" way? or the "easiest" way.<o></o>
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The correct way is #3 (sort of) if you are on a track. The most common and easiest way is #1 or just cruise in on neutral. <o></o>
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Driving a manual can be two different things between street and performance/track driving. Street is easy with little effort. Performance takes a hell of a lot of practice and a lot of hand foot coordination. 99% of people drive street style. (probably higher)<o></o>
OK, now think of a car as something that always has to be balanced. Balanced in a turn and in a stop. I used to always teach that the Pedal makes it go and the brake makes it stop. duh right? Well you'd be surprised how many people drop gears and let engines do the stopping. Now to have the car balanced, the engine has to be balanced as well and ready to go. The correct way is to run through the gears and blip the throttle in each gear until 2nd where you will blip and then sit. Heel/Toe it all the way through. Now Heel/Toe (which is not really your heel and toe but more like foot foot knee flick) double declutching is really more useful in turns but getting in the habit on a stop is also something I recommend. As you get to know your car better you will know where the blip needs to be and you will get it to blip perfectly onto the right spot with no car shudder. A nice effect is it shows you really know how to drive and sounds great.
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Anyways, I suggest you take a course and then practice practice practice. It is a lot more involved but it's a fun way to drive when you want to. Skip Barber is pretty good and the Audi Racing Experience is also quite good. Private lesson on the roads is great. If you can find a huge empty parking lot to practice in, that's a plus too.

Keep in mind, while being the "correct" way to drive it also puts unnecessary wear and tear on the transmission. Obviously it will waste fuel as well because you are revving the engine every downshift. Rumors that it is terrible for the clutch are untrue. I suppose if you are bad at it and do it wrong every time it's true but you will spend very little time with the clutch engaged when you are good at it so that shouldn't be your concern.

Here's a video but it may be hard to tell on a stop how to do it. Essentially, you will be using the outside of your right foot to hit the pedal while braking while putting your clutch in. Now you will run through the gears coming up on the clutch and repressing through each gear while using the outside of your foot to blip and engage the gear. As you can tell, it takes practice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPj9XXW25GA

InfiniDrew

iTrader: (1)

I pretty much do the same thing.

I don't like being in neutral on the chance that I'll need to accelerate/maneuver (light turns green, to avoid an accident, the other lane opened up, etc) during that long stop. Plus, I find it very fun to rev-match (most of the time...unless I'm tired).

Mike

iTrader: (1)

"trying to revmatch" eventually turns into "mindless throttle blip" after you do it for so long.

Mikenicco

The driving in here in Naples, FL is brainless driving. Turning arrows for everything, no turns in the road and home of the 7 minute red light.

I did a alot of city driving in NY & Boston. I can see where you would want to stay in gear at a red light with all the craziness of driving in a busy city.