S tronic Vs Manual

It's nothing to do with personal choice, chose whatever you like of course. But the facts remain that s-tronic is better overall
 
I reckon in few years time only budget cars will have manual as an option. It will be on par as not having ABS or traction control
 
Switch to neutral and here is your gravity. The laws of physics are not being changed
 
I reckon in few years time only budget cars will have manual as an option. It will be on par as not having ABS or traction control

The industry (in any sector) of course want to change consumer behaviour towards the more expensive alternatives, preferably, if they can, by making it trendy. Manual gear boxes I think will remain as its not important for safety and by some regarded manly/more fun/practical.
 
To slow and not as exact as having clutch close to pull level. For mr its important (but I live in the town doing parking on the street and tight manoeuvres everyday). That is a general argument against automatic if you need to manoeuvre in tight spaces a lot. Perhaps I could be used to automatic though, I don't know. Not trying this time though. Put my money on quattro instead.
 
Then by your definition we should still be riding horses if it's all about marketing. It's the consumer demand that drives companies to invest more in automation (applies to any industry). The demand for automatic has been rising steadily for a while with some cars being announced where automatic is going to be the only option
 
Automatic is not going to be more expensive on the contrary it will be cheaper
 
It's nothing to do with personal choice, chose whatever you like of course. But the facts remain that s-tronic is better overall

Better in what sense? There is nothing about it that is a 'fact'. It's all down to personal preference.
 
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Then by your definition we should still be riding horses if it's all about marketing. It's the consumer demand that drives companies to invest more in automation (applies to any industry). The demand for automatic has been rising steadily for a while with some cars being announced where automatic is going to be the only option

You will likely find that despite massive marketing, not least providing S-tronic cars to motor journalists for reviews, most people drive manual Audis. Sure, as the automatic gear box increasingly resembles manual (e.g. paddles for more control) they do increase in popularity. The marketing for S-tronic is also to some extent probably directed towards the female and older part of humanity - making it easier and effortless to drive a sporty car, you know.
 
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Price was irrelevant (for me). I didn't like the S-Tronic for a number of minor niggles:

1. I hate the auto-hold/forward creep behaviour of auto/S-Tronic boxes. On a slight slope, if I shove the clutch in, I want the car to roll back (yes, I know I could shove it in N).
2. And this one will *really* put me in the minority but I hated the noise the S-Tronic makes when you change gear under load. Obviously most love it but it doesn't make the car go faster and is superfluous (IMHO!).

Those two points for me were enough to sway it to manual but another factor is I like being more involved with the driving process which you get with a manual gearbox.

S-tronic Sportback S3 is 0.4 seconds faster to 62mph than the manual version.
I wanted the faster variant so I could brag on forums and belittle the manual owners with their cars that are 8% slower than my car!

In fact the heavier Sportback s-tronic S3 is 0.3 seconds faster than a manual 3 door.
The folk that have the 3 door S-tronic are the winners when it comes to top trumps.

:moa:
 
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Special needs is a term in the uk hoe folks who may have loss of function , maybe amputees, old folks etc... I was being PC .

And bang on cue, as if to demonstrate what a dinosaur you are !


"Special Needs" is no longer a (politically correct) term used in the UK.

We now refer to (Young) Persons with (Learning)Disabilities. The person is put first, not the disability.
if there is no cognitive disability then they are just "disabled". "Special Needs" is no longer used.

Edit: "Special Education Needs" is a different term/context altogether as it refers to the service, not the person.
 
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What marketing?? What do you mean by most people? Directed towards women?
S-tronic is FASTER plus gives you the flexibility the manual doesn't. It does make it easier to drive and is SAFER
 
The only people manual might appeal to is the older generation who are reluctant to accept the progress
 
Haha ElliotB you are on fire, I'm sure you will get a reaction ;)




I recall similar outcries when any new technology is introduced.

Seat Belts - don't need those, they are dangerous
Airbags - don't want those, they kill people
ABS - don't need those, I can out brake any ABS system
Power Steering - Pah only girls need that
Traction Control - don't need that, my right foot is better than any computer
ESP - don't need that, I can recover from any situation
ACC - that's dangerous, why would you trust the car
Etc.


PS Hill Hold is standard fit on manual gearbox, so on a hill, wanting to roll back, you'd be waiting the 3 seconds every time you wanted to use gravity coming off the brakes. :/
 
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The only people manual might appeal to is the older generation who are reluctant to accept the progress

Jeez, have you ever heard of a 'pull cord doll'?

If it makes you sleep better at night (and feel more smug), then we'll concede DSG is better. There you go, pat on the head. Feel better now. Please feel free to share your dogmatism with other forums won't you... Nothing like the fruitful debate on the internet with people with determined single dimensional viewpoints, so enriching.
 
After 10+ years moderating on forums and reading millions of post of absolute f*****g drivel my patience threshold has been eroded massively ;-)

What I will counter with is when people come here to use ASN the mod team have a duty of care to users to make sure the forum is not full of pointless bickering, single minded propaganda, or misinformation. It's not a playground, its an Audi forum for the benefit of everyone.
 
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S-tronic Sportback S3 is 0.4 seconds faster to 62mph than the manual version.
I wanted the faster variant so I could brag on forums and belittle the manual owners with their cars that are 8% slower than my car!

In fact the heavier Sportback s-tronic S3 is 0.3 seconds faster than a manual 3 door.
The folk that have the 3 door S-tronic are the winners when it comes to top trumps.

:moa:

The Stronic is apparently quicker to 100kmph due to use of launch control and gear ratios. So what. ?

I accept there are those who prefer auto, what's the big deal?
 
It's interesting that 10 years ago the argument for not picking automatic would be the performance. Now it's irrelevant..
 
I hear that an invention called the computer processes much faster than our human brains; I'd better hack my brain out and fit a mini Windows PC in there because that's the future. Then I can make all decisions based on numbers and pre-fed data rather than individual feelings...
 
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It's interesting that 10 years ago the argument for not picking automatic would be the performance. Now it's irrelevant..

Yes but the void the other way 10 years ago was that auto boxes blighted a good car. All that has happened is that STronic has closed the gap. Now its a more close run choice.
 
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S-tronic Sportback S3 is 0.4 seconds faster to 62mph than the manual version.

Indeed, but it is not the sound that makes it go any faster, it's the S-Tronic gearbox.
 
S Tronic feels like it's in the same space was a few years back when the 'hot' diesels came out. All of a sudden people were making wild claims they were real world quicker than petrols, and in certain circumstances they really are. However the trump up the sleeve was it did it with a level of economy too. However because I'm a dinosaur I'm about to buy a V6 petrol ;-)

The diesel folk always seemed determined to somehow justify why they'd made the better decision, and I find that now S Tronic owners are doing the same...
 
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The Stronic is apparently quicker to 100kmph due to use of launch control and gear ratios. So what. ?

I accept there are those who prefer auto, what's the big deal?

Ha, ha. "What's the big deal" coming from you who makes a big deal about the most mundane of things.

Having a manual Sportback you have the 6th fastest variant of the S3 out of 6.
So you have the slowest S3 available.
Just saying, no skin off my nose.
 
pwned !!!!111ELEVEN!!!

S-tronic is also faster around a flying lap with Launch Control taken OUT of the equation.

But so what? No big deal ha ha ha
 
Why do some people believe that their choices are superior to others? The one thing I dispise about forums is that everyone thinks they're choice is best, and the need to ram it down others peoples throats just frankly gets on my tits.

People can waste all the breath they have trying to justify their opinions; but like with cost, I'll listen but make my own choices. I'm just pleased for them they are happy with their choice. Please don't feel the need to convert me as I have enough life experience to choose for myself!

People who prefer S Tronic always talk stats, people who prefer manual tend to talk about emotion/mechanical connection ; go figure. I'm sure we can make an equation!

I'm not sure that's always it. I love my current manual scirocco so I'm not stron addicted, but for me I'm looking forward to the different experience of driving quickly and sportily with a double clutch box. I'm not a professional driver and I expect that needing less brain space for gear changes means more space for road placement, apexes, and entry and exit speed and so on. So I do think and hope for an emotional 'return' from my stron box, albeit a different one. Yes I might miss the connection the gears but there is more to driving than the gearbox! F1 drivers would surely agree!
 
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Come on guys stick to the original purpose of this thread.

Personally I like the s-tronic and much prefer it's flexibility to that of a manual BUT the purpose of the thread was to ask members to tell us WHY they preferred a manual and NOT to get into a s-tronic is better or manual is better thread. Everyone is entitled to the own opinion and can choose which they personally prefer but I am interested what influences their decision. This information could well be useful to others who are trying to decide which one to order.

NO MORE S-TRONIC or MANUAL is BEST please.....
 
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Jeez, have you ever heard of a 'pull cord doll'?

If it makes you sleep better at night (and feel more smug), then we'll concede DSG is better. There you go, pat on the head. Feel better now. Please feel free to share your dogmatism with other forums won't you... Nothing like the fruitful debate on the internet with people with determined single dimensional viewpoints, so enriching.

It really surprised me that you as a moderator would get down to that level (I have only realised now, was posting from my phone before). Thanks for patronising comments.

For the record my car doesn't have s-tronic, but taking all facts into account I believe it's a better gearbox.
 
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Guess immaturity won this debate.

to each his own and i do sometimes regret not choosing dsg but then again had i gone for dsg i would have regretted not choosing a manual, both have positives and negatives. That's my conclusion.
 
Yes I might miss the connection the gears but there is more to driving than the gearbox! F1 drivers would surely agree!
Have you ever sat in an F1 car and tried to change a gear? Do you remember in the 80's when drivers got out of their cars after tracks like Monaco with blood and blisters on their hands? You can't talk about a gearbox / clutch in an F1 car in the same universe as a road cars. A clutch that had to stand up to over 1000bhp, can you imagine how hard it would have been to change gear? Drivers were more knackered, gears were missed, gearboxes failed more regularly through driver abuse.; it's a completely different set of circumstances. It's like saying my Apple Mac has more processing power than a spaceship that got to the Moon; so what! An F1 driver drives what he's given, and they would outpace an ordinary driver in an S-Tronic (driving a manual) because AS YOU SAY it's just one factor of the driving process. People can quote all the figures you want (0.4 secs is hardly a lifetime for revolutionary tech), but Lewis Hamilton would likely beat any of our times on almost any track set in a 'fastest spec' of S3 if he was driving something significantly inferior (say a manual for example!).

I'm in agreement with Dave here; discuss the nuances of the differences, but any useless 'one liners' will now just be deleted from the thread.
 
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S-tronic Sportback S3 is 0.4 seconds faster to 62mph than the manual version.
I wanted the faster variant so I could brag on forums and belittle the manual owners with their cars that are 8% slower than my car!

In fact the heavier Sportback s-tronic S3 is 0.3 seconds faster than a manual 3 door.
The folk that have the 3 door S-tronic are the winners when it comes to top trumps.

:moa:

That's down to launch control. Get both cars rolling and things get a lot more even between the manual and the auto. I've had a mate with a TTS manual pull up alongside me when in my old TTS s tronic and I managed to get about a car length ahead of him from 30 to 80 ish, both coming off a roundabout on dual carriage way. Not that I condone racing on the road of course :wacko: What doesn't make sense to me is the Audi claim better mpg for the s tronic and that's just crap. Having had four double clutch audis, compared to the manuals, they used more fuel. I am hoping my new S3 will be better than my last on fuel, but I'm not expecting the claimed 40mpg average!
 
It really surprised me that you as a moderator would get down to that level (I have only realised now, was posting from my phone before). Thanks for patronising comments.

For the record my car doesn't have s-tronic, but taking all facts into account I believe it's a better gearbox.

I'll point you back to this posting: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/new-a3-s3-8v-chassis/212225-s-tronic-vs-manual-5.html#post2110739, and suggest you have a think about why I posted what I did. I'm not surprised to see you twisting the situation and playing the victim in this after being the one trying to push the agenda. You know where the report button is so please feel free to use it if anything I've said has upset you.
 
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That's down to launch control. Get both cars rolling and things get a lot more even between the manual and the auto. I've had a mate with a TTS manual pull up alongside me when in my old TTS s tronic and I managed to get about a car length ahead of him from 30 to 80 ish, both coming off a roundabout on dual carriage way. Not that I condone racing on the road of course :wacko: What doesn't make sense to me is the Audi claim better mpg for the s tronic and that's just crap. Having had four double clutch audis, compared to the manuals, they used more fuel. I am hoping my new S3 will be better than my last on fuel, but I'm not expecting the claimed 40mpg average!

Wasnt it how they done it in Fifth Gear? And s-tronic still won
 
That's down to launch control. Get both cars rolling and things get a lot more even between the manual and the auto. I've had a mate with a TTS manual pull up alongside me when in my old TTS s tronic and I managed to get about a car length ahead of him from 30 to 80 ish, both coming off a roundabout on dual carriage way. Not that I condone racing on the road of course :wacko: What doesn't make sense to me is the Audi claim better mpg for the s tronic and that's just crap. Having had four double clutch audis, compared to the manuals, they used more fuel. I am hoping my new S3 will be better than my last on fuel, but I'm not expecting the claimed 40mpg average!

Yes launch control, which you get in the s-tronic, which makes it relevant to a comparison between s-tronic and manual.
I'll discount a comparison you and your mate did in TT's off a roundabout as irrelevant in this case if you don't mind.

S-tronic S3 mpg is not great, but it's an S3, it ain't going to be economical if you are driving it as it should be driven.
25.1 mpg average over 2,300 miles. I guess that's one of the costs of owning the faster s-tronic variants.

:moa:
 
I'll point you back to this posting: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/new-a3-s3-8v-chassis/212225-s-tronic-vs-manual-5.html#post2110739, and suggest you have a think about why I posted what I did. I'm not surprised to see you twisting the situation and playing the victim in this after being the one trying to push the agenda. You know where the report button is so please feel free to use it if anything I've said has upset you.

I can't see anything wrong with my post in response to your comments. You haven't upset me in the slightest at the end of the day it's only a forum discussion. No hard feelings
 
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