Extended experience with sportshift?
 

I would appreciate any opinions on living with the sportshift? Happy or regrets? How is the auto mode? How does it compare to SMG or F1?

I looked a long time for an 07 with the sportshift. There aren't many out there but was lucky and found the car with the right color and options even.
I love it.
All my other cars are sticks and I really like having a paddle shifter. I do a lot of mountain driving and I can keep both hands on the wheel, and yet row through all the gears I want to with ease. I have only used in auto a few times but it was fine and will be great should I ever take the car down into San Francisco traffic.
I recently sold a Challenge Stradale and though the AM box is not quite as quick, in hyper mode, which is shifts above 5500 rpms, its only 30 miliseconds slower and its the same Graziano manufactured box, just not as quick. Now the new scuderia will shift almost 3x as fast as the Aston! Same as F1 just 4 years ago I believe.

The other thing I really like about the aston is the crawl gear in first or reverse so you can park or move about gracefully rather than the slow speed lurch in the Ferrari box.

If you like track work or canyon carving its a very nice box. The only issue I have noticed is under heavy deceleration it sometimes "sails" just a bit but only downhill and in hard driving.

Thanks for the thorough feedback. I would always drive it with the paddles but my wife would use the auto feature. She had trouble with F1 in my 360 because of the throttle response combined with the shifting. A few times, it started "bucking" on her and scared the >#$% out of her. How would you compare the smoothness of the shifts in auto mode between the SS and F1?

I have a 430 F1 and a Vantage with SS. I've had some experience with the "bucking" in the 430 in auto mode and, in my opinion, the 430 auto mode is extremely annoying in general. The SS auto mode is much nicer. It isn't nearly as smooth as a traditional automatic, but it usable and 100 times better than the 430.

That being said, I almost always use the paddles. The shifts are noticeably slower than the Ferrari, but the overall setup feels right for the car. I'm completely happy with SS.

How are the shifts in manual mode in terms of smoothness when just driving around town. I previously had an SMG car and it was great after I learned to use the gas pedal to control the quality of the shift but pretty bad before you learned how to drive it. The sportshift seems to get some of the same complaints as the SMG. Is this just a matter of learning the system or is it always less smooth than a comparable 6sp in normal, as opposed to agressive, driving?