Yup. I need a sedan. Otherwise I'd never have sold the Turbo.

Yeah it's that kind of thing that bothers me about non-manuals; eventually they seem to want to take over.

Same with skipping gears up or down, or just disengaging the drivetrain with the clutch. Or one I heard about the F8X: You cannot put the car in neutral without starting it (??!!!). What if it's dead and needs to be towed?!

Meh. If you have a car that can shift faster than you can think about it, why wouldn't you want auto-upshift? It's not like SMGII, where you don't want it to shift without your consent because it'll get confused.

I mean, put me firmly in the manual is more fun bracket, but a good DCT transmission shouldn't try to be manual for the sake of wanting too much control.

There has been turns in auto-x/tracks in which I want to hold the gear and potentially bounce of rev limiter. So I want to make the decision whether to upshift or not. Auto is for auto upshifting IMHO

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to upshift in a DCT car. Bouncing off the rev limiter is destabilizing and slow. The logic of “upshifting will destabilize the car and it takes too long to downshift shortly after” no longer applies.

good points , also upshifting got it the lagging/low torque of the powerband. But guess I need to own one but still do not see the harm of allowing full control in manual mode, Porsche and BMW do as far as I know.

I'm a big fan of the RS3 and from driving my son's A3 I really think it is an amazing car so the RS3 has to be worlds better !! We have 2 cars with the S-tronic transmission and the shifts are instantaneous ... it is a REALLY great transmission but OTOH there is no manual available which I know is a downside for you.

I think you might want to drive one first to see how the S tronic is programmed which I'm sure is more aggressive than our A3 & A ... my brother has the DCT in his E93 M3 and it engages like a manual. It has some hesitation and bumping around which IMO makes it fun.

Is the Alfa 4 door available in a manual ... it might be something to consider.

Sadly, no. But quality seems highly suspect and it's even more money than the M3.

So, four door requirement is really a damper on fun car choices. Is it a straw dog?

Because, I'll bet you can't beat the M2 or M240 for fun, and they do seat 4, with manual transmissons available.

You could probably even replace the Miata, if you got an M240 convertible.

A sedan is a must and non-negotiable.

This is how we end up buying cars we don't love. And then selling them 2 years later...