can't believe they ditched the manual gearbox for a car that was never competing on laptimes anyway. travesty....

 

And that is the exact reason they are discounting the V12S. Hardly anyone wants the car with an outdated paddle shift transmission. So if you can stand the SSIII you can get a great deal on the car. Just remember you need to plan on keeping it as it will be a tough resell.

 

At $140-150k this car is the bargain of the century... At $200k+ retail, obviously not so much

 

I really like SSM. Much more involving than any DCT. You get a good blend of manual and auto 'feel'. DCT might as well be left in auto mode. At least with SSM you have to be involved in the shifts to get it to work the way you want, so you just can't pop it into auto mode.

 

Agreed. Around town it could be a pain but once you're out on a highway I found it very enjoyable. Sure, it didn't make the car perform as well as it could have with a modern DCT would but the experience overall was still very rewarding.

 

With a proper TCU retune I bet most of the "flaws" could easily be ironed out. As always, Aston software is e main Achilles heel (same is true of their engine software of course)