Please, do your part. Save the Manuals.

[Ryan T]

1) I love me some heel-toe downshifts. Yes, a DSG can do it for you, but part of the fun is being able to do it yourself.

B) DSG is cool, and worlds better than a traditional auto, but... my biggest hangup is that you can't downshift/upshift and skip a gear or two. Sometimes I want to downshift from 5 to 3. I don't want to hit the (-) button twice and have it go 'brap' 'brap' - I just want it to skip 4th all together.

3) My experiences with CVT automatics have been in several Nissans (of varying power/cylinder amounts) and my rental Dodge Caliber freshman year. They all suck.

The "I don't want to hit the buttom twice" argument is sorta dumb. If you tap it fast enough (even two taps is still probably faster than you could push the clutch in and gear down) you'll never know it engaged 4th gear at all.

I never thought I'd be a fan of CVTs, but Sams 09 Altima has a CVT and I really like it. It may get a lil confused on your throttle input from time to time, but not enough to cause a problem. And when your in a little bit sportier mood (as sporty as you can get an a 4-cylinder altima at least) pop it over in manual mode and drive it that way.

Are clutches fun? Sure. Are they being phased out? Sure. Does it bother me? Nope. Technology has always phased out older technology, some facet of the population always fights against it, and in the end technology almost always wins.