Originally Posted by mjanowich

I'm using mine more often now. It's most useful when merging on to a new road or situations where you'd be rolling slowly and need a quick boost of acceleration. For example, when merging into traffic. There have been many times that I've rolled onto a merge and the auto was in 3rd or 4th gear, when I needed 2nd. It's much more efficient than slamming the gas pedal all the way down and waiting for the computer to figure out it needs to downshift.
I think it's the best of both worlds, especially in the Washington DC area, where traffic is stunningly horrible most of the time (top 5 worst metro areas, I believe). When I need quick bursts of acceleration, I can manually put it in the gear I want, when I'm sitting in traffic, I don't have to worry about working a clutch over and over again.