My WRX feels like a go-kart and it's nothing to do with the shifting, but rather how it goes around 25mph curves at 60mph without even a hint of body roll. My turbo Forester is almost as fast, but doesn't do corners quite like that. It's also rather boring with the automatic/paddle-shift CVT. It may not be as smooth or fast shifting as a DCT (I'm sure the gas mileage is better as CVTs are vastly better than DCTs with gas mileage), but even if it were perfectly smooth (and DCTs as a rule are not perfectly smooth either from the various accounts of I've read of different models), it wouldn't matter. It's still BORING to do nothing more than press a pedal to go forward.
I'm sure those who can't stand stick shifts (most of which I assume is because they require skill to operate properly) would disagree since otherwise they would have to give up driving entirely, but pressing a sequential paddle "click" is just not the same. It feels more like a video game and a bad one at that (and I have a high-end Logitech steering whee/pedal for my Windows machine with the Test Drive Unlimited games and a dozen others and that has a 6-speed plus paddle shifters along with a full clutch/brake/gas pedal setup and so I know what driving games "feel" like). No clutch (or a digital one with no feedback) feels like a video game shifter. Clicking a paddle to shift feels like a computer directive and it IS a computer directive. You have no actual connection to the drive train what-so-ever. The car may not shift right away because it thinks you are going too slow to go to a higher gear and therefore won't "let" you, even if you know you're on a flat piece of road that's starting to go down hill and you will get better gas mileage. Too bad. It knows better. It overrides your command. The new Corvette with the 7-speed manual....unless disabled, it has "gates" that come up and BLOCK you from selecting certain gears because it's decided for you that you could get better gas mileage so it interferes with your "manual" control. That's supposed to be FUN? There's no synchronicity to tapping a paddle through sequential gears, not rhythm like pressing a clutch in, shifting through the next gear and releasing, like rowing a boat. I don't care how much faster a computer is at shifting, if it's not fun it's not worth having. I'm not on the street like some child drag racing in the streets and asking to lose my license. I want to roam through the mountains and country roads with just me and my machine and not some computer programmer getting between me and that machine. Your mileage may vary.
we forget that today's automatics are VASTLY better than the old automatics. With the application of computerized controls, transmission manufacturers could get rid of most of the heavy and complex hydraulics that automatics used to require. And that means WAY lower weight for the transmission and with computerized controls, a lot faster shifts between gears and no more "hunting" between gears when going uphill. In fact, I've driven a Hyundai Sonata and (US market) Hyundai Accent with their six-speed automatics and these automatics shift gears very quickly and going uphill, you don't have the annoying "hunting" between gears that plagued the old three- and four-speed automatics.
