In terms of my personal opinion, I am also on the fence; not because the auto is not extremely competent and a worthy choice but because I generally but manual for pleasure use and auto for daily driver.
No matter how good an auto is (or an F1-style box with computer controlled clutch), there is always a sacrifice to be made at the expense of driver involvement/car control, to gain ease of use in traffic.
I'll wait until I have an extended test drive to make the final decision but I recognise it won't be an easy one.
I agree with you Simon, when I was last at the factory,I had the pleasure of riding out in a black auto Aero with the factory test driver for well over an hour, although I was a passenger only, but noticed there were just a very slight delay between gear changes in manual mode(not as fast as the DSG), therefore any spirited driving might involve a bit of forward planning.
In auto mode, it was superb
I was all excited, and decided my next Aero will deffo be an auto.
Now, I'm not sure
the last few times when I took my Aero out for a decent drive, stirring my gearstick about, heel & toe on down gear changes, holding onto each gear for as long or short time as I please, and I was wondering what if I was in an auto? Will I still enjoy driving it as much? The answer is probably "NO" for most of the time, because I'll be doing nothing, but holding onto my steering wheel with both hands
Pretty much lack driver's involvement!! But I haven't ruled auto out completely tho...
