How do they do that?

I followed someone for about 3 miles last week and they were never more than 1 car length behind the car in front at speeds that never dropped below 45mph.

This was done on a road that has a gentle climb followed by a fairly long downhill, various corners, another climb followed by some twisties and another downhill.

At the end of the 3 miles there's a crossroads and car no1 was turning right, car no2 (the tailgater) was going straight ahead but we had to wait so I got a chance to see that car no2 was driven by a woman of about 30 who, if I'm pigeon-holing people, I would say had little interest in the details of driving.

Car no2 was a 1998 Toyota Corolla 5 door so had either a 1.3 or 1.6 engine.

My 'How do they do that?' question arises from how often the Corolla braked which was, in all that distance with height changes and corners, about 5 times.

I sat back and tried to keep a set distance but even with the Nissan's decent amount of engine braking when we were going down the hills I inevitably either closed up or had to brake yet the Corolla did neither.

It's a phenomenon I've noticed a lot of times and leads me to the conclusion that there are a lot of people in small engine cars that have minimal engine braking that absolutely must be driving in 3rd gear.