hmm... well lemme see.. the question was "Is the 5AT good enough to forgo a manual?" the answer is... no... not if you are used to driving manual and like feeling connected to the car... sure it shifts quick (not THAT quick... its no twin clutch or SMG...) but it absolutely will not feel like a 6mt... so if you like the manual feel ... and are thinking that maybe the triptronic will feel like a manual then the answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT... but if all you care about are speed etc... then it does not really matter if you go AT or MT... but just remember...

Nothing else matters when your knifing through traffic
Wishing it was a stick-shift, it's an automatic
Listening to the road, voice of the nomad
How he'd love to leave drive away never go back

- 10 points to whoever tells me what song / artist that is

 

and please dont search it @ google lol... where my hip hop heads @?

 

Also wanted to add if only they had put a hand brake with the auto instead of the foot brake it would have been perfect for me.. but i could care less now i still love my AT! Just got used to the foot brake now....

 

In all honesty. There is currently no benefit to have the 6mt over the 5at. They are equal in speed and unless you are a perfect 6mt driver, the 6mt might actually be slower (mis shifts and what not). Some people just enjoy the feeling of driving stick over auto. Some people don't care. If the only thing that's holding you back is performance, I would stick with the 5at. It's the best automatic transmission that I have driven. As far as your question concerning the Journeys, they do have a DS mode, but only the Sports have the paddle shifters.

 

if you are a REAL M3wannabe, then you will get the 6mt

 

Acceleration wise, the AT and MT are equal. Control wise, the MT beats the AT hands down.

Like G35Now, I also went to the dealer ready to buy a 6MT, but ended up buying an AT. The reason is because the MT on the G35 felt odd. I'm not sure if it's the drive by wire throttle, but it would have this little rev surge every time you shifted and engaged a gear. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that the arm rest on the manual was too far away to rest your elbow and reach the shift lever at the same time.

I test drove the AT and liked how it felt so I settled on an AT. If I had to do it over again, I'd get the manual, warts and all. The control afforded by the AT is no where close to what I've been used to after driving manual cars for a long time. When I'm driving fast, instead of concentrating on steering, accelerating and braking, I've found myself pre-occupied trying to guess when the AT is going to shift when I tap the paddle or the shift ****. It's unengaging and actually a bit dangerous compared to my experiences when driving fast in a manual.

To answer the last question, the DS mode works exactly the same on the Journey as on the Sports. The only difference is, the Journey has no paddle shifters so you can't manually up or downshift without first engaging DS. Paddles can be easily retrofitted to a Journey for about $200.

 

If you owned a GTR you would also have the same identical paddle shifters the G has

 

I too went in thinking I was going to get a 6MT, but after driving around for an hour with the paddle shifters, I changed my mind. They shift much quicker than any other car I've driven and it absolutely gives you total control over your gears the same way the 6MT will, not to mention your only moving your fingers and can keep both hands on the wheel. DS mode is quite engaging. It's certainly not perfect like using a stick or the paddle shifters, but it does a surprisingly good job and choosing gears.

With this said, the 6MT is a more engaging experience and it's more fun to drive when there is no traffic around. I'm 37 years old now and live in the Washington, DC area which just ranked 7th worst city for traffic. Actually it was the absolute worst in every category, but it's public transportation brought it back up to 7th. A 6MT just wasn't practical. Plus it's minivan time on the weekends with the wife and 3 kids

 

Honestly,

The 5AT has some pros and cons specifically to the 2nd gen G35:

Pros:
1. IT shifts very firmly
2. Manual shifting the auto allows you to hold to the rev limiter

Cons:
1. Really rediculuous 5th gear! why am i revving so high at 60mph? Its more than my 2 other maximas.
2. Really weird shifting patterns at partial throttle (feels very strange like its skip shifting sometimes). The worst part was taht 2 other 2nd gen g35's did the exact same thing so its normal

I really liked my 300C's tranny because it shifted hard at high RPMS but smooth at low rpms (very seemless).

My choice in this car is 100% 6 speed manual for sure. I regret getting auto.

 

Compare 60 to 120 in an AT and MT and tell me its the same in accelereation.

 

Dude, I feel bad for you - in pretty much every post, you talk about how much you miss your 300C. I understand, a 300 is the pinnacle of automotive engineering, must be hard to give that up...

 

its not bad for an automatic, but make no mistake, there is no comparing it to a true manual


the manu-matic shifting seems lazy in the 5at, like you are shifting in molasses

and if you leave it in automatic mode, sometime the transmission gets confused and seems to not know what you or it wants to do

 

It sure is hard to give up!!

 

the only thing that bothers me about my auto is the fact that i cant do crazy mods like a twin turbo and really make my car a monster...or can i?...how much power can this auto transmission handle?...can it handle like 500hp or not?..i doubt it can but im not sure, does anybody know?

 

yes. i went to the dealership in nov-06 looking to test drive.

tested the 6mt and did not like how hard it was to modulate the clutch. it was just to numb to me, and bouncy in low gears.

tested the 5at with the paddles and it actually could grab the gears as hard as i could in the 6mt. and with no noticeable power loss. on top of that, in D it shifts smooth as glass with no shift shock.

its great and i drove off the lot with it that day.