I cannot imagine a scenario where I would ever buy this car with a auto tranny....

I ordered a manual. I'm 58 and in the back of my mind I'm thinking there might come a time when I may not be able to drive a manual anymore. If that time comes I'll worry about it then. Since I'll be autocrossing and tracking the car the automatic just won't cut it. I learned how to drive a stick in Drivers Ed on a new 69 Impala with a 3 on the tree. Back in 79 I bought my wife a new RX7 and taught here how to drive a stick. Trust me, if she could learn anyone can. My first car was a 68 Plymouth GTX 440 4 speed. Now there is a car where you had to have a bionic leg to press the clutch in. Present day cars are much better.

Test drove AT with all nannies disabled, using both paddles and tip-shifter; ordered MT as planned.

The 86 AT shifts quickly enough but, frankly, I was looking to return to MT and the decision was only made more certain by the 86s poor down-shift rev matching relative to the equivalent semi-auto in my current car (whose transmission is crap in other ways.)

I was just poking fun :D Highlighting letters in white was a bad idea :bonk:

Nothing against the people who have the AT, not everyone can drive stick even if they wanted to. :)

Definitely. If I had to share the car with my lady and it was therefore AT or nothing I would be super happy with the AT. :)

Auto here, Sydney traffic sucks balls and other people who don't drive stick willa lso be driving this car.

I'm going manual on it and hoping my crappy knees don't disagree with my decision lol. If they do I'll trade it to someone who wants a stick

I had the chance to try both. Personally I am old school and chose the Manual. I do live in montana so traffic is non existent. I don't think there will be even a need to install a short shifter on these. Going from an Evo MR the 6 speed is nothing new. I agree the response on the automatic is great. Anyone experience the Evo X MR SST trans? I wonder how they compare.

Test drove the MT this afternoon and was very impressed. I found the clutch just right for my taste. I have not driven MT in many years and had no problem with this car.

The sound inside the cabin was great, I did manage to rev it up to 4-5K before shifts. I was definately impressed with the MT and feel it's an easy choice to live with. I do not plan on having this car as a DD, more of a weekend/summer car only.

I have not driven the AT but hopefully try it out next week.

The dealer I went to had both AT and MT demo cars.

IF i get one it will be auto, itll be my daily car

waiting for the lexus IS redesign before i decide

Decided to go with MT, but still waiting for it to arrive. Even without owning a car with MT before, I figured this was the best time to make the switch. Been given a few lessons already by a good friend and already feel pretty comfortable after about 1 or 2 hours. I still have the most trouble with starting from a complete stop but feel like I'll really get the hang of it soon enough.

Glad to see so many people are happy with their AT FR-S, though.

The FR-S will be easy to learn on. I learned on my previous car, an 08 Si, and it was easy. I feel like the FR-S is even easier because of the clutch. Just takes time and experience is all. I'd say it's better to stall and learn to be patient than get into the habit of higher than necessary launches. Try to keep your launches under 1.5k rpm and eventually you should be able to do it seamlessly from idle.

Touché!

We will be autocrossing our Auto in National Level ST class competition. Bought the auto because of its ability to up or downshift quickly in situations that you would otherwise just bang the limiter to avoid the shift. Certain courses will favor the ability to either grab third and then trail the car into a corner with some left foot brake while downshifting to second seamlessly or pull the car out of a slow speed corner with first gear instead of lugging off the corner in second because the shift down and back up simply takes too long to justify.

I've been racing for almost 38 years and I LOVE manuals, but this auto is intriguing on too many levels not to give it a go.