While I love the thrill of driving a stick, and previously bought a 2002 Passat GLX 5 speed for that reason, I found that the times I am in this "sport driver" mode was not as often as I am in a general "cruise" mode or driving in stop and go traffic or block to city block driving.

I find the sportronic (my first "manu-matic") awesome. Granted, its not a 6 speed with a clutch, but I find the timing of the upshifts and downshifts pretty darn good (most times, pretty immediate)...which allows me to "pretend" that I'm driving a stick...yeah, sometimes I miss the clutch, but most of the time (95%) I don't.

Opinions? Would you rather trade for the 6 speed if you could?

Not at all. I love the sportronic. You have the option to keep it in drive or to switch to sportronic. grant, it doesn't have a clutch. but it kinda still feels like a manual. it's absolutely awesome. So for the guy who is tired of the manual but still get's the urge for it. sportronic is the way!

im on the fence about this one... i have a sportronic, and its good, most of the time. I hardly ever use the cruise mode, im prety much always in the sportronic mode, and granted i love it over a plain auto, i think i would rather have a strait manual transmission (5spd in my case).

im not exactly sure why tho, haha i keep telling myself its because manuals hold up much better to high HP and heavy modds, but i know im not going in that direction any time soon ($).

well i have the 6 speed. I used to work at a used car dealer but i have never driven one of the sportronic transmissions. I did though drive a straight auto 95 talon esi and there would be no way i would ever give up my 5 speed in my 96 gs over the auto. I guess there would be a difference between the 260 hp 3.8 and the 140 hp 2.0 but the auto felt sluggish compared to my 5 speed.