Our first
MCS hatch is an auto as my wife cannot drive a manual car. I was hoping that my Clubman could be a manual but as we do sometimes end up swapping cars for various reasons, I decided it would be easier all round if my Clubbie had an auto gearbox as well. Shame really, as with all the options I wanted, it has ended up costing just as much (if not more) than a factory
JCW would have set me back!
Having said that, most of my driving is stuck stop-starting in motorway jams to and from work, so for the most part, I am very happy to be sat in an automatic. For me the paddles are a bit of a gimmick - I have given them a go from time to time but that has always been for a bit of fun and I soon get bored and return normal "Drive" mode. To be honest, I think when it comes to using the manual shift function, I still prefer to push the gear lever forwards or back to change gear as it feels more "natural" to do this than flap at some paddles on the steering wheel. I don't think I would miss the paddles at all.
