Manual/stick shift question
 

How important is it when downshifting that you go through each of the gears as opposed to going straight from 4th to 1st for example. Keep in mind not going straight from 4th to 1st from a high speed but going from 4th to 1st at the regular speed you'd go from 2nd to 1st in.



Hope that makes sense.

Doesn't matter, you can select whatever gears you like. The reason for going down through the gears is for max engine braking, but if you are doing something different then there's no harm in that.

I'll just pop it into neutral sometimes and skip down-shifting all together.

I only downshift to 4th or 3rd usually. Mainly just for fuel efficiency since there's fuel cutoff while in gear but not while in neutral.

if, say, you were going 40mph, you shouldn't directly shift from 4 down to 2 without some sort of rev-match. whether its just engine speed or double clutch to match engine speed and transmission speed. it'll wear on your car faster by just shoving into a lower gear.

It does not matter typically this is all listed in the manual for the car