Heres something for those people considering an automatic.

Im not sure if the roads are very different in Australia compared to the US but here we have a 60km/hr limit on suburban streets. (50km/hr on smaller streets)

I have discovered that for suburban driving, you never have to change gear!

More and more I leave the car in third gear. there is enough smoothness and torque to turn corners in third and the speed limit in suburban streets means you never have to shift out of it.

--virtual automatic!--


I have never driven a car that could do that!

 

I had a similar experiance with my MX3 V6 when touring around the narrow winding lanes of Kerry (Southwest Ireland), you couldn't go very fast (espeically when stuck behind my other friends in the Golf), so I just left it in 3rd the entire time, even when going up some quite steep gradients.

I also got the best gas milage ever out of the car (35mpg verses my average of 26mpg).

There is now way I'm taking my new RX8 over to Ireland though, the roads are utterly appauling - rough as a ploughed field and with pot holes large enough to loose an entire wheel in to. They loosened everything in the car including my fillings. After driving there for a week I got off the ferry and the UK roads felt so smooth it was like flying in comparison.

Cheers
---Dave

 

??? I cruise in 6th in the city 40-60km/h 3rd would drink the fuel!

 

good point