Those of you that have the auto what do you think? Was it a wiser choice over the manual, how's the performance difference? Are there shifters available to allow you to down shift and up shift without fear of missing or hitting the wrong gear?

Long story short the treasurary department (my wife) has given approval of getting a 2011 but this time it will have to be an automatic so that she can enjoy the Mustang as much as I do.

Thanks for the replies.
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Well Ive had both on this car and i prefer the manual by far. But i would be lying if i said the automatic was slow. In the case of the 2011, bone stock auto is getting 12.5's at the track, so its gonna be fun lol.

 

blah. 412 Hp = fun no matter what shifter you get

stick is first choice...but i'd take either

 

I personally hate automatics, but if the Sgt.Maj. is giving the go ahead, but it has to be a slushbox, then do it!!! Teach her how to drive a manny tranny!! I've heard that the newer trannies shift nice and fast - even faster with a programmer (your lil present to yourself). I gotta admit, if I drove in a lot of rush hour traffic, I'd have no choice but to do it

 

Tell her you'll buy an auto but only if she learns to drive a stick. That way she'll learn how much fun a stick is and want that instead.

 

I'm wondering if the new 5.0 is going to get the lighter clutch, like the new GT500's have.
My excuse for getting autos has been that the GT's clutch has been too heavy for my weak left knee and the massive amount of stop and go traffic here. I live in the worst traffic spot in the USA! 20 minutes to go 4 blocks!
Hopefully we can ditch the auto, which really sucks if you plan on doing any roads that have corners and require downshifting!

 

Teach her to drive a manual, she'll have a blast.

When I bought my '04GT (manual), I couldn't pry the keys out of my wife's hands!

My '10 is a different story, she's paranoid of scratching it or something so she doesnt like to drive it much.

 

my wife isn't allowed to drive a manual in traffic. she gets pissed off and does burnouts...and her 2nd gear scratch is pretty good as well

 

I like the automatic just fine. I don't think you sacrifice much in the way of performance but you might lose 1-2 mpg. It depends on how you drive it. If I had the stick, I think I would probably drive more aggressively more of the time. That probably would not be good!

 

I've got a 2010 auto and prefer it over the 2008 manual I had; I don't think my gas mileage is as good with the auto though.

Well worth the tradeoff to have a car that shifts into gear when cold...and it shifts faster than I physically could with the manual at WOT.