Good transmission for Bay Area?
 

I currently live in San Jose and plan to buy a 370z. I will mostly use it on weekends and 8-9 am, 3-7 PM on weekdays. I was thinking of buying a 6 MT but will i regret it? I wanted to ask members on this forums about their experiences with their car in the Bay Area mostly SJ area

I daily drive mine love it. Clutch is touchy at first till u get used to it

Daily drove my 1st car 30k before she left lol. Wonderful.
Daily driving my second! woooo

:iagree:

MT!

:tup::driving:

will you be driving around the city hills of sf or the flatlands of san jose? both? elsewhere?

just SJ/Cupertino/Fremont/SJ no SF

I'm probably in the minority, but I got the 7AT and am very happy. After 11+ years of East CCC Highway 4 traffic in either my 5-spd Integra or WRX, I was ready for a change. The paddle shifters are very nice. If you're not sure, try test driving each during commute time to see what you can live with...

Go with the 6MT for sure. A lot more fun than any paddle shifted auto. The problem with the automatics, is that even though you shift gears with the paddle shifters, there is no actual feedback to let you know what gear you are in other than the display (so you have to constantly look to see what "gear" you are in, instead of keeping a hand on the shifter to know what gear you're in). My wife and I were just on vacation and we tired using those types of systems in various rental cars that we had, and it was not comparable to a real 6MT.

Also the automatics are more difficult to service, are more costly to service, and have significantly more areas where they can develop problems.

If you have 2 working legs, and 2 working arms, 6MT ftw!

:tup:

For what it is worth, I live in Sacramento and regularly drive the Bay Area -- SF, San Jose, Contra Costa, etc. My work takes me to numerous client sites all around here. The 6MT is no problem, even in traffic. Maybe it is just that I am used to it since I have driven manual transmission equipped vehicles since my driving career began (in 1975).

Is this really a question to ask? Either you an auto-enthusiast or not...

This is coming from a guy who lives in downtown SF.

True

If you're in bumper to bumper traffic everyday, skip the MT and go AT. MT is definitely more fun when you drive, but I don't consider sitting on the 101 for an hour everyday "driving".

Good advice. I DD mine so 7AT and it's jut fine. I ride sportbikes on the weekend so that's my 6MT. :)

I went with a 6MT without thinking about it twice, I deal with LA traffic pretty often as my work as well has me driving to client locations near and far...6MT gets my vote, you won't regret it.

6mt here.

I love manual and I know that if I went with the 7a, I would regret it down the road.
I drive EVERYWHERE - SJ, Milipitas, Fremont, Union City, Oakland, Berkeley, SF on all types of slopes with no problem.
Plus if you're planning on FI, manual is the way to go.
Plus plus, anti-theft device :tup:

Just depends on your commute route but I have no problems with MT on my drive from Santa Cruz to Milpitas on 17/880 everyday. The car has enough low end torque that its easy to drive in traffic.

Yeah buddy!...I drive mostly in the south bay and east bay. 6MT is not a hindrance for me not even in traffic, although I thought it might have.

I drive 17/880 weekdays and go through traffic all the time - 8am & 6pm. I just put it in 2nd give myself a car length from the car in front of me and cruise.

Shamu - I think I've seen you in your white nismo going down 17

Basically

The clutch has a helper spring so it makes traffic easy.

Buy the sports car and transmission you like best. Sitting in traffic is not the litmus test of the 370. Many cars are better at this.

The entire car is for that moment the road opens up. To parse an impractical car into a sensible one is why folks drive station wagons in the first place.