Mine has 4500 miles on it now and it still is very resistant to downshift to first. Other than that, it is a very smooth tranny. I have had mine to the strip and if you practice a bit it shifts very quickly. Having said that, if I had it to do over, I believe I would have bought the auto stick. I live in the country so that isn't the issue, its just that the autostick is so good that it seems there is no longer the BIG advantage that a stick used to have. You don't have to take my word for it though go to any drag strip and virtually all the cars there are autos and many of the road racers have opted for a sequental gearbox which is virtually the same thing. By the way you should still be able to downshift to first at up to 20mph or so, and yes you should ALWAYS downshift sequentally.