At first I was turned off by the Automatic, as my last 7 cars were manuals, but I liked the car enough to get over it. Now that I've lived with it for a while, I think it was the right choice. I think the car would have been a little too brutal with a clutch that could hold that kind of power. In everyday driving the auto is your friend and allows you to cruise around like an Imperial when you want. It reacts VERY quickly and has some intelligence to it. It actually downshift into sharp sweeping turns and holds the gear FOR EVER! Even in full automatic mode, I find myself having to manually calm it down after a foot to the floor passing manuver. It holds 3 rd gear for about 20-30 seconds, waiting for you get back into it. It def. well sorted for high performance drivers. In manual mode, it isn't instantanious, but still quicker than I could clutch and yank. I've actually learned the transmission well enough that I can even rev match it on down shifts just like a manual. A couple of people i know actually thought it was a manual until recently, as I pull that rev match trick often.

Overall, I'm happy with it.