Just curious how often you guys use it. Coming from driving manual I always try to get the best of the manumatic but at the same time it gets me aggravated sometimes. I tried not to leave it in D because it's just too boring. I probably used manumatic mode 75% of the time or more. What I don't like about it are...

1) When you merge or change lane and you brake because there are cars in front of you and then you drop the gear (not knowing the computer dropped it for you already). In other words the double drop is very annoying especially if it was 4th to 2nd. Not counting it's a bit dangerous too the sudden jerk back of lets say 50mph when it was suppose to drop back to 3rd.

2) Stop and go traffic and merging, I find myself looking too much on the Gear Number and this itself takes off so much concentration that I have to throw it back to D.

3) Delay shifts of course. I am sure everyone notice them. Also, an occasionally 1st to 2nd shift sometimes doesn't shift at all and I know I had pushed up. Weird but it happened a few times, maybe the speed was too low when I pushed up .

How are you guys dealing with manumatic? It's better than nothing but automatic is still automatic. I can't really use D, I hate when I know each shift the computer does for me. With D it just shifts too much and I don't like when I step on the gas to merge (I don't really need too much power) but sometimes it drops two gears and I am at 5,000 rpm already when all I probably need is like 3,500 rpm to pass) Driving manumatic, I feel I am using my brain twice as much as driving regular manual.

So envy you 6mt's out there Back to the drawing board of considering trade in

 

I only used D when I was breaking in the car but used manumatic after it. A few times I put in D and forgot about it and put it N once

I understand the automatic drop might be frustrating but it doesn't happen to me very much and I don't look at the gear too much as well. Stop and go traffic, your usually in 1 and 2 going back in forth so no looking at the gear there too but I usually leave about 2 to 3 car lenghts in front of me so I can cruise in 2 or 3. The car seems to have some points where it doesn't want to shift or it will takes about a second delay for it to shift. After driving it for awhile and getting used to it, it eventually goes away.

 

Stop and go traffic is fine but I am talking more about city driving, I mean Manhattan New York City traffic. To beat the hell out of the cabbies and cut lanes, I need to constantly shift when I drive my manual car. But with manumatic I couldn't keep up because of the "delay" in shifts and that it drops the gear for me when I don't expect it to.

 

I use it all the time..Mo problems yet

 

Hate it!! Learned to drive with a manual and this is just a bastardization of a manual IMHO. Would be better if it didn't try to think for you.

Just my 2 cents......

 

I have not experienced the frustration mentioned here... mine doesn’t downshift on it's own (other than into 1st when rmp drop below 900 or so). I don't experience excessive delay in shifting either. I primarily use manumatic when I'm in the mood for "spirited driving" and of course always at the racetrack. Other than that I’m in D

 

Doesn't downshift on it's own??? Maybe because yours is not an 05 and the gear number saids "4" no matter what. We all have the same engine. It downshifts on it's OWN. Even without looking at the gear number I feel every downshift when the computer does it.

 

i try not to

cuz if i use tiptronic...i'll use more gas

 

shifting is pretty much like a sequential shifter on a drag car. i only slap it in to manual when diving in to rotarys and exit ramps. other then that i keep it in D. it shifts gear at red line and there isnt any reason to maual shift it.

 

I use it on occasion when I'm feeling frisky. Around town, I leave the shifter in "4" for more response and being able to kick it to 3rd if necessary. The good news is leaving it in 4th around town has no effect on MPGs.

At the track, it's a necessity to manually shift the 2-3 and hold 3rd the entire run. If you let the car shift itself, it shifts too early. The factory tach is NOT accurate. When says you're at 6500rpms, you're really only at 6200rpms. I've verified this with my OBDII scanner. When manually shifting the 2-3, I hit the shifter up at 6400rpms which executes the shift at around 6800rpms. If you don't hold 3rd, the car will shift into 4th at around 90mph which is not good for optimal acceleration. You can hold 3rd till about 100mph before hitting the limiter. I tap the limiter just after passing the finish line in the 1/4.

I actually prefer the earlier manumatic set up vs the latter. If I want to manually shift from a stop, I manually select 1st. If I want the car to shift itself through all the way to 4th gear and then not shift to 5th, I simply leave it in 4th. Having the car force you to row through all the gears from a stop when in manual mode is a bit of an annoyance. I drove a 05 Legacy wagon with the manuatic that had this program and it was very annoying.

 

I really like the downshift rev matching of the 05 tranny. I drove an 04 Loaner and it felt ackward when downshifting...

 

I use it all the time and I have no problems with it. Defintly no delay on the shifts. But I also drive a coupe (just pondering the sedan forum) that might be different.

 

well.. nothing beats real manual but its still really good....

real good for stop and go traffic ... keeps you from riding the brake all day

rev-matching in 05's definately works pretty well.

 

I used manumatic for about three weeks to get familiar with it. Since then, I use it once in a while when I want to gun the engine a bit. In normal driving, I noticed 'Auto mode' shifts at about the same RPM as I would with manumatic, so I don't expect appreciable MPG difference there.

As for the quality of the shifting, it clearly is not as crisp as a 'real' manual but it's still fun. I also have a MB with manumatic. I like the G's better. FWIW.

 

I use it a fair amount...maybe 1/4 of the time. LOL, I should use it more often, then I would be less prone to forgetting it's in that mode.
When passing, I usually switch to manual mode to get the one gear downshift, otherwise the G's I've had and the M I have now want to go down 2 gears which I don't need most of the time.
I love MM. It really is a sweet feature of A/T.

Only one complaint: now that there are 6 and 7 speed automatics out there.... I want one!..


(but not enough to get rid of my current ride the M or the G's I once owned)

Colin