“Oh, it’s a stick. I can’t imagine ever driving an automatic, and certainly not the TT. Do they make a TT that’s automatic? That should be criminal.”
You’d be surprised – the new manumatic types of transmissions that are appearing on the sporty cars are a lot better than they used to be. I was a manual snob until recently (I had had automatics before, and couldn’t stand them), but my wife refuses to learn to drive a stick, and I had resigned myself to getting an automatic so that she could take the “fun car” from time to time.
Got a Infiniti G37 with their automatic, and it really changed my opinion. I can drive it just like a manual using the paddle shifters – the tranny never overrules me (I can even hit the rev limiter if I’m not paying attention), and the tranny even *blips* the throttle to maintain engine revs in the sweet spot (and get rid of shift-shock) when shifting as if it were heel and toeing. And the wife can stick it in “D” and still have fun (the shift points and responsiveness are very good even when not driving it in manumatic mode).
