This was a practice in older vehicles when they weren’t quite smart enough to know when and when not to use fuel. However, a quick Google search showed that many are still engaging in this practice, which simply isn’t necessary and can put undue stress on the driveline.
If you live in an area with very few and very quick stoplights, then maybe you can try to justify shifting to neutral to prevent having to be so heavy on the break. However, in modern vehicles, it’s still completely unnecessary. With how quick lights are, lasting no more than a few minutes at a time, the fuel you could be saving is negligible. Compare that to the cost of having to repair your driveline or perform more frequent maintenance on your CVT, and you’ll find that the numbers don’t really support this age-old practice.
It’s also possible you may try to drive while the car is in neutral. While this isn’t necessarily bad, if you do shift while the engine is revved, you may cause your transmission to slip. Do that too often, and you can run into concerns.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to longer waits, like if you know you’ll be stationary for quite some time. In that case, put it in park and release the brake, or just turn the engine off.
