Coming from driving manuals and owning only manuals for about 13+ years (g35x is my first auto and I still possess a M/T accord), let me try to make some sense out of this MT vs Auto debate.

M/T drivers

1) Usually have a higher ego (please don’t flame me, at least this applies to the younger crowd) that it’s better, faster, etc. If driven by a professional M/T will always be faster than Automatic. If it’s driven by a hardcore M/T enthusiasts, it’s “usually” faster. However, if both cars were driven by the average Joe that we find on the street, I would say the average Joe can “probably” drive an Auto faster than a M/T.

2) With M/T you take full control of all the gears and you shift when you “want to” shift. I’ve driven 350z which is probably ½ faster to 60 and less than 1 sec faster in the ¼ mile than my X. I’ve accelerate like a man mad on the 350z to see what the difference it is than my car. Is it faster? Yes. Is it a lot faster? No. From 0-60 it’s about .5 second faster and it sure doesn’t feel like the Z can blow away my car. However, when driven and accelerating from 0-60 with the Z’s M/T, the car definitely “FEELS” faster. Definitely feels faster than ½ second to 60. With M/T, you are busy trying to get a good launch and a perfect shift that you tend to forget the time spent it’s not much faster than a good automatic transmission. But the feeling of a perfect shift and getting into redline, that itself is priceless.

Auto drivers

1) Automatics are good for the average lazy Americans (don’t flame me on this). It’s true that in America, most cars sold are Auto. People say with Auto you don’t get nearly as tired in traffic but I don’t agree with this totally. I find my right foot quite tired from holding the brakes all day long, whereas in M/T, I would pop it to N when the car is not moving. Yes, you can pop from D to N but from what I’ve heard is, it’s not good keep for Automatics to keep popping in and out of N.

2) The manumatic on the G35 is not bad. It holds the gears (I thought it does that until I read an earlier post that at full throttle it downshifts for you). It’s better than having just D. At least you get to play with the gears, but it’s no substitution for M/T. People talk about the Bmw’s smg, etc, but only a true manual, you would able to know exactly what gears you are in and not like smg’s where you have to constantly tap it and so does manumatic. It takes me more concentration driving manumatics than M/T cars because I have to glance at the dash to make sure it’s in the right gear and occasionally it drops a gear when the speed drops.

Conclusion:

I hope I am making some sense. This is a debate that will go on forever. Now, which one do I side with? Obviously M/T even though I am driving Auto G. Why did I get an auto? The typical reason, living in northeast, needs awd and wife can’t drive stick. When I itch for M/T, I just take out my M/T accord and beat the crap out of it. Have I thought about trading in for Rwd M/T? Yes, but it’s costly. A perfect world would be a M/T AWD G35 at the moment but it doesn’t exist.

 

I agree with everything you said

 

Okay I wanted to update the post I did earlier about the Full throttle downshifts. I just tried to make THIS loaner I have this time around do it. I put it as high as 4th gear at 30 mph I think it was and floored it. Tried 5th, 3rd, 2nd, etc. I could not make any gear shift out of it. Now what I don't understand is that the other Loaner 2005 I had did do this but maybe it was at a certain occasion that meet the criteria for it to shift. I think I was going up a hill and the car was bogging so it decided to shift. Not sure on this but it would be a good idea for someone to look into if someone owns a auto. I know a 03 owner that has told me his does shift down if there is enough pedal pressure and not enough accel.

 

Thats the old TCU. The new ones were implemented on the 04 sedans. It will never downshift for you if you floor it in the models 04 and up. For the coupes, it was always this way (a true manumatic and not a top gear shifter). You can select 5th gear and absolutely pound that pedal to the ground and it will not downshift. Trust me....i've embarassed myself this way several times

 

But how come the other 05 Loaner did it?

 

I agree with Mikeee except for the fact the puitting an AT into N is actually better for your trans than keeping it in gear. When an automatic tranny is in gear it is generating heat as the car is trying to move forward and the brakes are preventing it. This causes heat which is dissipated via the trans fluid. Placing the car into N removes the heat generating clutches in the automatic transmission from contact with the clutch plates, therefore no heat is being generated. A cooler tranny is a happier tranny.. also.. the AT will NOT downshift if you floor the throttle. The tranny will however, downshift as your speed gets closer to 0 as if you are comming to a stop. So, if you manually had it in 4 or 5 and slowed to a near stop the computer in the tranny would pick a gear that would allow faster accelleration without damaging the transmission.

 

Beats me....you sure you weren't smokin that happy cabbage again

Honestly, go test drive a used coupe and try mashing the pedal all you want, it will hold the gear. I've done this a thousand times (i like to drive in manual mode) and it has never ever ever once downshifted on me unless I am slowing down or coming to a stop.

 

Okay maybe what happened is that it was bogging in the gear and it was slowing down some and it got to the point where the ECU just shifted down and the car took off. Understand what I mean? If you slow down the car starts to shift gears down some or it would die if it stayed in the gear. I am willing to bet this is what happened.

 

ROTFLMAO! That's my bit!
Don't smooth 'em off too much. Wouldn't be the same around here. I happen to love your posts.

And then there was this:
Generally true story: IMSA revoked my license recently when they found out I attempted to teach a lady in a RAV4 (!) how to stay in my rearview mirror by downshifting from sixth to, ah, well, sixth. At 45 mph. FYI: A RAV4 is hellaciously fast in that situation.

 

Or maybe it needed an ECU reset.

(All together now: Shut up, J.)

 

 

Trouble is Russ, you just don't know how to drive an automatic.

 

lol guess not!

 

Can anyone else elaborate on this? If this is the case I would shift to N all the time at red light. I hate holding onto the brakes. But unlike MT, you can't just pop it to N when you see a red light going at 30mph to let it just row to a stop right? I think that hurts the engine.

Ok, from the previous post, seems like in manumatic it only downshifts for 04 model's and below. I guess that doesn't apply to me because I've beaten really hard on a loaner before and it never downshifted for me.

 

Well, on my '05 AT, if I'm in manual mode, it does downshift as I slow down for a stop, it even shows it as 1 on the selector after I stop, but when I take off, it stays in 1st until I upshift, on my '04 it would downshift, but still read 4th (or whatever I had it on) I will check this again, but I'm almost sure it's how it went.