Perhaps you are correct, but you are a minority that wants this manual involvement. I was reading somewhere that something like 80% of 3 series sold are automatics. I was pretty surprised at first. But more I thought about it, more it made sense.

Regular Joe doesn't want to row. Even in a Beemer, which is a speeder.

(Don't mind me, it's Friday and I'm going on vacation.)

 

I agree, there's no real substitution .

 

Ya according to BMW... but I dont think you can trust manufacture numbers anymore. And I dont think torque converters are much of a issue now a days. Maybe when driving normally and you want to accelerate etc... but straight line racing will not be an issue.

A few have tested BMWs 545i with Auto, SMG and Manual and the Auto was the fastest out of the bunch. This was with more than one car. Even though BMW says the auto is 0.1-0.2 sec slower than the SMG or Manual its not the case the Step is the fastest in straight line. With Manual I can see driver error but with SMG its all car and Step was faster...

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=22686

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=28472

The one thread that started it all.

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=21913


And now with this NEW improved FASTER tranny... It'll be sad for manual lovers