MSG C5

Not only that, I'm also afraid that the auto manufacturers are starting to eliminate the shifter all together. I rented a car in SF last month that had a **** to shift gears vs. an actual gear shift. I literally didn't know where to place my right hand/arm while driving. I hated it!

3 Z06ZR1

Lots and lots of guys here with A8's. Great driver to me I love mine.

Wemattson

mschuyler

Oh, yeah! I was in some sort of BMW where the "shifter" was a three position **** on the dash. Reminiscent of my 64 Dodge Dart with a push button shifter to the left of the steering wheel.

Patman

So true. Where I work they have a large section of a warehouse that they use to store cars for the winter. At this time of year some of those cars start getting removed and a good portion of those cars have manual transmissions. But very few people at my company know how to drive a manual, so when these cars need to get shuffled around, they often come to me to do it. I don't mind one bit, I get to drive a ton of really cool cars (even if it's just at 5mph inside a warehouse) I got to drive a new Mercedes AMG GTS this week (that was automatic but nobody could figure out how to shut off the electric parking brake, or even get the trans into reverse or drive for that matter. So some automatics can be just as difficult to learn apparently!)

paganharley

In my 17 I went with a m7. I missed rowing the gears. I donot live in a city so that is not a problem, unless I get in traffic on a road trip I am planning for in August.

sjhanc

I drove strictly manual shift cars for my entire life except for a 57 Pontiac with 4 speed automatic that I hot rodded and raced. Both of the C2 Vettes that I owned were stick, a 67 Vert that I raced through 5 different engines, and a 66 Coupe with a big block boat anchor engine (what we hot rodders called the 390hp big block), that I eventually replaced with a 350-350hp small block I built myself, with balanced and clearanced engine parts. When I sold it because my wife wouldn't drive it due to its poor gas mileage, the prospective buyer wanted a gas mileage engine so I replaced the 350 HP engine with a 295hp small block built with all stock parts.

Right out of high school I worked for a NAPA auto parts dealer killing time while I waited for my draft notice to come. One day I was carrying a battery using the store's in-stock battery carrier when the battery slipped out and crushed both of my big toes flat. The doctor who treated me said there was little he could do, the joints and bones were too badly damaged. I would have to wait and see if they healed, or turned black and dropped off. After wearing a cast on the left foot for a month and with the right foot wrapped, I worked on crutches until I could get a shoe on the right foot, then weeks later the left and put the crutches down. Most of my work was driving the company delivery truck all day, so while painful, I could drive.

I could have used my foot injuries for a draft deferment, at the time that didn't appeal to me, my friends were going off to the war and coming back in a box. and there was a stigma attached to draft dodgers I didn't want on me. The Army assigned me to drive trucks during my first week of basic and I attended Aircraft Maintenance school, that job kept me flying instead of walking in the minefields.

My foot injuries returned to make my walking difficult many times and as I get older it is taking longer to recover. I wish that my left toe HAD dropped off, I have never been able to put weight on it anyway. I retired from working for a living and wanted another Vette, but realized I could no longer deal with pumping clutch pedals so now, I had the opportunity to buy a 98 C5 automatic that needed fixing up, the Doctor that had been using it for his daily driver for almost 20 years had been told by the car shop who screwed up its repairs that he needed to get rid of it quickly before some major problems (that they knew of because they caused them) sent the car to salvage.

He sold it to me cheap because he had been working on my back injuries for almost 30 years and he knew my Job as a GM Tech had prepared me to be able to fix his worn out old Vette. I was happy because of its automatic but bought the car to part out, I didn't think it was economically repairable (too many electronic and lots of other parts issues). I dove into its engine dic code issues and after rebuilding the electrical connectors in the engine harness, all the codes went away and it became a reliable set of wheels. I had learned during my GM diagnostic training to always fix the lowest number code first, then some of the higher codes would just go away.

I loved the way it drove and the powertrain worked like new in spite of its high mileage. The car is not a special Vette so will never be a collectible unless it becomes one of the last of its kind (not likely with way over 200,000 built, and most still on the road). I got to work on its sad interior and bug and bird dropping ruined finish, made some good buys on salvage parts for it and got it into pretty nice shape. I entered it into the local Chevy dealer's car show and it got a Best of Show in the factory original class. The Doc was really happy about that but unfortunately he passed away soon after. Not bad considering that I was only entering the show to be able to park within short walking distance for my foot, and then walk around admiring the serious show cars present.

BlueDevilZ51

Because it's faster.

DucMan 888

Years ago I would have never considered a Corvette with an automatic, and with the 2000 I had it was a manual. But reading the reviews at the time of the 2014 A6 I decided it deserved consideration, but was still leaning towards the M7. I wanted my wife to enjoy the car and gave her the choice, she was leaning the other way and as a 'good' husband I went with it. I have had no regrets, in fact I am glad we didn't get the manual. I use the paddles the majority of time while in sport mode and under quick acceleration the shifts are crisp and give me a more immersive feeling. And having the auto available on more mundane driving is a nice option.
And one last thing seeing my wife occasionally drive it to work always makes her day, and mine.

DanZR1

I bought my 16 gently used because I couldn't afford a loaded 3LT Roadster's new price tag. I was disappointed that the car I found was an A8. Eight months and 10,000 miles later, I'm very happy I "compromised" and got the auto. It's an engineering marvel, and is smarter at selecting the right gears at the right time than I'll ever be...

awright2009

I would of went with the M7, but the A8 was just coming out, was faster, and had paddles so I went with it (figure it would be safer for me and the car to go auto)

Paddle shifting has too much delay from the press to the shift with the A8, A10 with the new camaros is awesome though, but the A8 is an awesome transmission, very aggressive when it goes into performance mode