use your overdrive/hold button to help deceleration, downshifting causes un-needed jerking of the engine, gear box, and of the car itself. too much of this and you might find other things breaking, ie motor mounts or tranny mounts. it's not a smart thing to do, however, i've down shifted too far... into the equivelant of 1st and 2nd gear at 65 mph, and the damn car jerked, the engine reved incredibly and the whole car was vibrating violently. needless to say, it still runs fine, but if you sense it jerking around or vibrating more, just change out your tranny fluid (or have a tranny service done) and don't shift into neutral to assist braking. to tell you the truth, the friction caused by the engine revs is enough to slow your car down during normal, even harsh braking. don't be affraid to lay into the brake so much, even if you are going fast, just watch traffic around you. shifting into neutral can actually cause more wear on your brakes when coming to a stop. and as far as shifting out of neutral while moving at a considerable speed (just saying, perchance that you should be doing 70 mph in neutral like i've done), pressing the accelerator and letting your revs hit about 2,000 lessens the impact of a straight shift would, meaning having it jump from 1,000 to 3,000 is more dangerous than a jump from 2,000 to 3,000. if you don't follow, than ignore me, but safe driving means doing safe things, and what you're doing isn't. only time really the shifter should be moved down into d2 or d1 for that fact is a slow approach to a hill to lessen wear and tear on your engine. so take this as a piece of advice and don't neutral shift to brake faster.
peace

 

If you are worried about downshifting, just buy a 5-Speed, hell they are tons more fun to drive anyway. An automatic is not meant to be driven like a stick...hence automatic vs. manual

 

exactly...the Protege's auto was designed to do all that **** for you...albeit very poorly...

 

Don't try that on an '83 F-150. My little brother thought it was funny as hell. I did not. Also a good warning to beat the crap out of any kid who shows a tendency to touch controls while you are driving. He grabbed the column shifter and jerked it all the way to 1 when we were driving down the highway. I didn't find any damage afterwards, and my tach went a couple of grand over stock redline, so I guess I got lucky.

 

haha, yeah my Dad use to electrocute me when I was a little kid jerking around with buttons and levers while he was driving, and look at me now...flawless...