If it's your car, I say go with what you want. 6MT! I made my fiance cry when I bought my car (I hadn't bought her a ring yet and when I did that fixed everything, ). But I still got the car I wanted and everyday when I get in it I smile because of it...Good luck!

 

Well, if she is going to be driving it most of the time I would value her opinion a little more. I thought it was going to be your car which she would be driving like once a month. It may be a little on the selfish side to make her daily drive a manual just so you can use it as your alternate sports car.

You really can teach her pretty quickly if she's willing to learn. Talk it over with her and feel it out. If you can convince her, great. If not, just compromise with the AT. You are still getting an awesome car either way.

 

I agree get the 6MT bro. But if she is going to do most of the driving the Auto would be a better fit. But! if you really want the manual, you're going to have to teach her. The sad part is if she has never been taught to drive stick before...that poor Z . Good luck.

 

I agree that if your dead set on 6mt the 5at "manumatic" is a poor replacement. However the 5AT isn't any slower unless you're one of the best stick drivers on this forum. If she is going to be driving it everday and doesn't want the stick you are kind of stuck...

You can easily peal out from a stop with the 5AT (may need to turn traction contorl off)

I have the 5AT even though I know how to drive a stick. My only regret was I didn't realize there was such elitism amung car enthusiest against automatic transmissions. I thought most people would just buy what they prefer to use everyday and go on with their life... which is how it seems to be with domestic sports car. However with the Japanese car scene it seems everyone thinks it takes a PhD and a 10inch **** to drive stick and if you go automatic you're a pansy, dumb ash, poser. This has kept me from going to Z meets and import meets b/c I would rather not have to deal with that level of immaturity...

 

I think you've got an easy choice, it sounds like it's going to be her car anyway, so get the 5AT. Then act subtley upset about it (as though you're REALLY disappointed but trying to not show it) and talk her into a Vortech plus SGP Valvebody upgrade. You'd whip any stock 6MT you could find...

 

you will be hearing from your wife for as long as you own the car if you dont go her way. personaly, i would take the yelling and get the 6 speed. however, since she will be driving it 80% of the time..get the 5AT.

 

Yes, if you put the petal to the floor, the tires will break away and peel out... (my stock rears were bald from this..hehe) The Z has plenty of power in both 6MT & 5AT, enought to get you into or out of trouble (whichever the case may be).

The last three cars I have owned were all standards, but I came across an excellent deal on a very low mileage 5AT Z, and bought it. While I miss the stick shift, I have become accustomed to the AT, and I'm glad I have it in the daily traffic. I usually use the tiptronic shifting, except when in traffic.

If I buy another one, it will be the 6MT since this is no longer my daily driver. For daily driving though, the convenience of the AT can't be beat.. in combination with the tiptronic shifter for blasting down country roads.

 

the question is...is she willing to learn? you can teah her to drive stick in less than an hour and after dricing for a whole month she'll be comfortable with it. if you are going that route send her to a driving school (no sense in messing up the clutch on your new Z) and have her go through the motions...in the beginning all she really needs to practice are the 1-2 shift and uphill 1-2...finding the gears is relatively easy.

make the learning experience fun for her. if you approach it like it's a chore than she ain't doing it....not that i'm saying women are stubborn....oh no....not me. lol.

 

Well we tried the whole standard lessons before in '02 when I bought a new Celica GTS, didn't go to well, but I didn't let her drive enough to learn. So the car sat there and didn't move only on weekends so I sold it a got an auto IS300 with e-shift. It was nice in traffic but no sports car. I will try to talk her in the 6mt but if I have to settle with a 5at that will be alright, I just want the Z really bad. I will get a SC if I get the auto anyways so I guess it would be alright.

 

z in auto is a sin, only 10% of Z were made in auto, whos driving the car more anyway? give her the IS300

 

My pops has been a delivery guy in Los Angeles for the past 13 years. All he ever owned was MT cars (I think it's because they used to be cheaper). Now he's paying the price, his left knee is all screwed up from using the clutch so much. Then again it is L.A. stop/go. Even though people say (and I respect their opinion) that a/t is "pointless", "girly" or "just plain wrong" I chose an automatic. I don't race, nor ever hit the track, I can't afford ruining an amazing machine or hitting somebody on the road(then why have a Z?,... simple... show off/bragging rights ). A friend of mine had a M/T Track Z, after about 2 years, he got tired of stick, now he drives an a/t truck. I strongly believe if you're a M/T driver, a/t will just be too boring for you, but just like VQ3 said, "YOU'RE BUYING A Z" which is the bottom line. Besides, I don't think your wife will like for you to show the inside of your Z to some other chicks. I'm engaged... I should know. Oh yeah and I AM A SINNER... who isn't?

 

A-f'king-men brother. I cant deal with crap like that. If you live in any sort of major metropolitan area and commute in regular stop and go traffic, have stick isnt "cool" or "fun" at all I dont care what anyone says. Sure I wish I could be like everyone here and have 8 cars to drive and 4 different daily drivers and just drive my Z on off weekend days between May and August on dates ending in 4 only. But the Z is it for me, and thank god for that really. Its my daily car, I take it everywhere, but I dont drag or show off for my buds or go 145mph in the rain either.

But ask anyone that commutes in DC/LA/SF how fun a stick is when an accident shuts down the highway and its one lane bumper to bumper for three hours.

 

Man I'm glad I ain't the only one who thinks A/Ts are just as good as M/Ts.

 

Hey look I'm not here to say one is bad or the other is better or whatever. It is what it is and personal preference means everything. Its not like I bought an AT and it came with an 80hp engine, the AT can be driven just as hard and fast and FUN as a MT. Shouldnt that be what the Z is about, having FUN? Sure if I lived on the backroads in the country somewhere and worked from home, I would have bought a stick. But the AT is topnotch and I havent had one second of regret.

 

I've never been to a meet, do they look down on people just 'cause they have a/t z????

 

If it is mainly your wife's car, looks like an auto. If you are mostly are interested in acceleration from a stop, no problem with the auto with TCS off. In fact, I could argue that it is easier to accelerate from a dead stop consistently with an auto if you step on the brake with your left foot and pre-load the drivetrain using your right foot before you take off.

 

It's a sports car purist issue. You actually shift a sports car......you get slushboxes in minivans and bland commuter cars. When you dumb down a sports car by putting the shiftless in it we purists don't like it......it's like going on a hunting trip where all the deer are tied up to the trees

 

Ssssssso I take that as a "Yes"?

 

I would say 30-40% don't care the others think driving stick is a right of passage to own a sports car and resent you for being a discrace to the clique. I even hear BS from people who don't own sports cars (and drive autos) saying how if they ever bought a Z they would never have gotten an auto, and most of the time these people don't even know how to drive stick. Right now I am under 25 and when I decided I wanted a Z I thought I would keep my mazda 626 (automatic) since it was paid for then get a Z for my fun car, unfortuantly insurance would have reemed me for doing that so I decided to get a car I can put miles on and drive all day and after I turn 25 I will buy a truck and a new car that will most likely be stick.

I test drove cars with stick before I bought my car, I just wasn't into the whole japanese sports car scene so I had no idea the stigma against automatics was so harsh. I fully understand why a lot of people would never even halfway consider getting an automatic but I don't understand why so many people think my car is less of a sports car or less of a Z because of it.

I wonder why you never hear people saying AC, cruise control, leather seats, sunroof, power steering, ABS, etc make your car less of a sports car.

 

Why is then that all of the supercars now have a clutchless transmission??? I realize that our manual mode AT is far different from the F1 sequential manual gearbox, but neither have a clutch...