My Z is my first AT in 30 years...my last car was an RX8 with the six speed manual. I also do most of my driving in the city and I was pretty well fed up with shifting on city streets (although I loved it on the highway).
I chose the AT on the Z after trying both on the road. I've never experienced an automatic that had the shifts change as smoothly and quickly as the Z.
I also have ankylosing spondylitis (neck and spine have fused because of inflammation) and the manual Z was just too rough. But that's my problem.
Even as someone who took a lot of good-natured crap from folks when I got the automatic, I still believe people who drive manuals are just better drivers because they have to be. I had to make the move to AT (and believe me this is a car that seems harder to find if it isn't factory ordered in AT).
And I absolutely DESPISE the move to CVT in passenger cars. Cars have become floating clouds that completely remove the driving experience from the driver's brain.
That said, I learned stick on a POS diesel Rabbit in the early 80's. I'd find the 370 a bit of a beast to learn it today.
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