Now that it's broken-in I can tell you that it's much easier to drive the AT fast in the mountains. The ability to shift by using paddles means that my left foot can be used to hold me in the seat... ...I don't have a harness.
I have really long legs and I always had a problem getting to the clutch while taking high-G turns. I couldn't really position the seat far enough back to allow my left leg to move around and still reach the steering wheel ---- hard to describe and you won't understand it unless you have 38" legs too.
With the AT I can sit a little closer and have great control on the wheel.
When the car magazines compared the R56-S AT to the MT, the AT won every race. They didn't want to believe it so they kept repeating the tests.
I'm encountering alot of MT-snobbery but I don't care. People look and say things like, "oh, you got the automatic; wife must've complained..." They I lead them through the mountains and they say, "wow; what mods do you have?" They can't believe it's stock and has an AT...

 

I think it's been better lately...or those of us who are happy have just spoken up louder.
In the end, tranny choice is too personal of a preference for one person's opinion to even be relevant for someone else.

 

It's also an automatic versus the manual. From the computer display it looked like I was getting better gas mileage driving a bit faster than the speed limit. I just kept the cruise on whenever I could and of course I wasn't in sport mode.

I have another longer trip planned for this next weekend so that will be another good opportunity for me to test highway MPG.

 

You are quite right!! +2

 

We were really disappointed with the gas mileage and then we took a 400 miles trip yesterday. Zero'd out the computer and set the cruise control for ~70.

In the cold morning we got 38.5 at one point but averaged 35.6 overall. Since the original sticker said only 33 hwy we're cool with what we got. We have 3000 miles on the car.

 

I get about 27mpg, hardly any HYW driving. Just about to hit 3000 miles. Lately been getting ~23mpg but have had the AC blasting all the time and the sport button's normaly green

edit: I drive a standard

 

31.5 mpg after fill up from the weekend. It's evident that the commuting miles are killing the mpg.
Oh well, I'm happy.