Manual vs. Automatic - Various Choices

Originally posted by TD
I'd specualte that most auto/SMG drivers never learned stick and are too intimidated to try to learn. They then blame their spouses or traffic for their owning an auto.

I would have to agree, now if they had NOT programmed the A mode in the SMG, the situation would probably be better. I mean, really, the system double clutches, rev matches, and removes the clutch pedal for you (not you in particular), and you are so lazy that you can't tap the stick to shift?

As for using stau as an excuse, that is so lame. I converted 4 of my slushie driving friends to driving various 5 speed Audi's and BM's, and none of them would EVER go back to having a slushie. And yes, we all drive in horrendous LA traffic.

The way I see it with this SMG, they can make it better by:

1. Remove ALL A modes.

2. Program the damn thing to blip and rev match while you are off throttle.

3. Program the damn thing to blip and rev match while you are braking less than 7/10th.

Andy
02 M3 CB/Cloth SMG

ps. Stick M3 is not faster than the SMG, those auto journalists are idiots. If they had taken the time and do some research (ie. their JOB) , they would have found that they were supposed to use the racing start mode and NOT the burn out mode. Idiots.
Someone on the .org posted a time slip of 13 second with proper LC mode.

And yes, I track my car. Hell, I drive in S6 on the street exclusively

I'll always have a stick. Whenever I drive a car with a slushie, I tend to feel like an amputee victim: always reaching down for something that used to be there...

All my cars from the age of 17 have been stick, and I don't plan on buying an automatic (or SMG) until I'm about 70 years old.

My wife can drive a stick, but her quote on the subject is, "why make driving more complicated?". Ugh. However, she likes the handling and looks of BMWs, so I'm going to actually buy our first new BMW with a step. It's her car, and I'll probably wind up choosing the rest of the options on the E46, but I'm not going to try and convince her that manual transmissions are more fun.