Hello! I have a 2013 MB c250 Sports Plus.

She's a really nice car, and I'm trying to find all the ins and outs of it. Recently, I've been messing around with the manual portion of my car (its an automatic, but the paddle shifters change it to a manual when used).

So anyhow, I noticed that the car downshifts while I brake when in automatic mode, and when I need to brake suddenly and hard it makes a tiny thumping sound. So, the past few days, I've been messing around with the manual portion of the car by using the paddle shifters (I like to keep it in sport when I'm using the paddles). Instead of using the brake to slow down when coming to a stop, I've been downshifting with the paddle shifters, than upshifting with them as I pick up speed and the tach meter gets high(till it gets to 4). I've been downshifting instead of using my brakes, even when I'm getting off the highway. It sounds cool and causes me to brake a lot less.
When I downshift to slow down, the car revs up really loud, and if I downshift 2 gears (from 3rd to 1st) quickly, the car shoots up to 5 or 6k rpm, and revs louder than it normally does. Sure, it sounds nice, and I'm sure downshifting to slow down saves my brakes from wearing out, but I can't help but worry that I am putting undue stress on my transmission.

Am I doing harm to my car by paddleshifting down to slow down? Is it bad that I downshift to 1st gear most of the time before I use my brakes, or to avoid that thumping sound when I need to brake suddenly? Downshifting to slow down seems to prevent the thudding from occuring, makes stopping smoother, and makes my car sound super cool when it does its rev matching.

 

Downshifting with paddles is fun, but I never downshift into 1st. I consider 1st the “get moving” gear when taking off. I like to hold down the downshift paddle and let the car do the rest when coming to a stop. I try to treat my gearbox with respect. Remember - brake bits are cheaper than gearbox bits!

 

Hey thanks! The car downshifts into 1st as I stop automatically when in Sport. In Economy, it holds second. That being said, are you recommending I switch to Economy when I stop to avoid going into 1st?

 

So my car behaves differently. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Sport or Economy, if I hold the downshift paddle for a few seconds, the car goes down through the gears automatically, but stops at D2. I would have to press the paddle again to get D1 (which I don’t do).