Is noone aware of the fact that when engine-braking with Fuel Injected cars, the injectors are actually shutoff, thus you get arguably better mileage because of the small amount of fuel it would usually take to idle while you coast...
Apart from that. To me, part of having a manual and the extra control to me is being able to downshift and not have to stomp on the brakepedal all the time. Yes yes, It does make sense that this is only more wear on tranny and clutch, etc. but fuggit, that's why I like driving, and have a fun-to-drive car.
And yes, heel-toe downshifting is sooo damn nice to do. once you've got it figured out on the boil you'll have a BLAST tearing up twisties (it wasn't JUST my car letting me keepup with that vette I did lately) ANd, yes, actually, in-town traffic is the best place to practice this. Basically it'll get you in the habit, and give you lots of oppertunity to hone the methods.
As far as driving in adverse conditions... if you leave your car in gear and use the engine to help you slow, you'll actually keep some form of control as the engine will not allow your wheels to lockup. What your friend is likely referring to is that under power, your car will act weird if you're on the gas. But with front wheel drive it's much easier to just let off the throttle and get it back wheras with rwd, you'd likely fishtail. Really the best thing to do is find a big open curb-free area of a parkinglot to play in when it starts getting nasty out. benefits are that it's fun as well as teaches you all sortsa emergency handling tidbits in ways that words typed on the net could never do.
