[ferongr]

>Engine braking wears transmission components

No it doesn't. Synchronized, rev-matched downshifts put negligible load on the drivetrain. Coasting to a stop with the gear already selected, putting it in neutral just before stall does that even less. The stresses produced by acceleration are ballpark estimate around an order of magnitude greater. This can be inferred by the fact that usually the rate of deceleration by engine braking is smaller than the rate of acceleration for a given gear ratio, ergo, the drivetrain is strained less.

[Toucan]

It still wear components that are not as easily replacable as brakes. As for coasting to a stop whilst still in gear, I agree with that being a good idea but I don't think that's what digitalWestie was getting at.