If you want to be someone who rides the brakes all the way down a hill, go for it. Slipping the car into 3rd, say, which then holds a car at a given speed and hence using engine ‘braking’ won’t do jack to a transmission. A 40mph downhill incline by me sees literally everyone go about 3/4 of a mile riding the brakes all the way down. Rev match into 3rd and descend the hill with the revs going to about 2.8K, and feather the brakes at the end where there’s a roundabout. Once in a blue moon you see someone also doing that in front of me, and, with no surprises, all of their driving/road manners/technique beyond this decline (as deduced by being behind them for the next few miles or so) is generally top notch.
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I have never had issue doing engine braking, although this is anecdotal. What isn’t is clutch replacement is more expensive than pad replacement.
So, three of four months after passing my driving exam I was driving down a mountain (wasn’t in the UK), dragging my brakes all the way. The road came to a t-junction, me facing the end of it and a relatively steep ravine past it. I pressed on the brake pedal only for the car to barely start slowing down. I was stationary only after passing the t-junction and all four wheels going on the grass. Much luck was drained that day, no traffic on the main road and enough braking left to stop me from certain serious injuries.
It is safe to say I learned my lesson early on, and I will always use the engine to help out when going down. Comes to preference and experiences I guess, but I can’t seem to come across any faults with the gearboxes of cars I have owned. Perhaps in the UK similar situation may not even be possible given the topology, but that shouldn’t detract from learning the technique.
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I know we’ve wavered a little from the original topic in question, but as the discussion has gone in a particular direction I thought I would make a few points.
In short, I would say this comes down to preparation for the hazard ahead. The recommended approach from an Roadcraft/IAM/ROSPA perspective is, overall, that you are using a combination of retardation from both systems. But key to this is preparation.
By using ‘the system of car control’ (Position, Speed, Gear, Acceleration) you would have your speed appropriate and have already selected a lower gear in preparation for the descent, to prevent the vehicle from ‘running on’. This is different from relying on the engine and gearbox to slow the car down during the descent. With that lower gear selected, you can then modulate the brakes on the way down as necessary.
This differs from just maintaining the same gear and potentially using the brakes more on the way down. In a higher gear, the vehicle is more likely to ‘run away’ down the descent, requiring longer periods of brake application and increases the risk of brake fade and brake fluid temperature increases due to elongated brake application.
Likewise, not preparing sufficiently for the hazard in a ‘gearbox to slow down’ mode and allowing the vehicle to continue down the descent, gain speed, and potentially block changing down from, say, 5th to 3rd, will place additional strain on the clutch and gearbox. Speed must be appropriate first, for the gear you’re about to select. Now, the application of technique to this does muddy the waters somewhat. As you could rev match that change and smooth out the forces a little. But I’d say rev matching and the application of a ‘heel and toe’ technique or similar won’t be used, or known about, by most of the motoring public.
Discussions like this are really interesting Advanced Driving topics for me. In my experience, they tend to be better discussed in ‘real life’ as well and have a proper conversation and deep dive as there will always be differing views and alternative points to consider. As is usually the case, there is no ‘black and white’ answer to a topic such as this. I’d certainly advocate for the covering of a few topics like this at a National Rally or similar in-person meet.
I’m sure we’d all consider ourselves car and driving enthusiasts here. We often spend lots of time, effort and money on upgrading our cars. But don’t forget driver upgrades as well 
Cheers,
Steve
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Good post.
Yes, I do what you described in paragraph 3.
Like you mentioned in paragraph 5, you can rev match a 5th to 3rd shift (or rev matching 5th to 4th, then 4th to 3rd etc) and archive the same thing, but like you implied, what percentage of the public can do that, even more so if they are checking on their mobiles what Lisa has just posted on ‘insta’, at the same time. But also like you discussed, it’s better to be ready, in the right gear, at the start of the ‘hazard’ in the first place.
Good post. Enjoyed reading your analysis.
Well said, I did not spend time to go into much detail, but I would agree with what you are saying for the most part. Preparation is key, and what I mean by using the gearbox to slow down is not shifting down the gears but rather being in the right gear, and remaining there rather than going into neutral and using the brakes for 100% of the retardation.
Driver upgrades give the most bang for buck!
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Now totally off topic
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