Don't get me wrong, the technology is quite impressive. However, I am worried that Lamborghini will follow the path of ferrari with technology. Recent stats show that 80% of all F430 will be orderred with the F1 transmission. Along with this a majority of Gallardo owners opt for the E-Gear. Do you think there will be a day when a lambo buyer is no longer able to get that glimmering shifted gate?

-mdabney
http://www.lamborghinis.blogspot.com/

Everything runs in cycles. The six (or seven) speed manual will have it's day again.

I'd like that to be true, but if I was to bet, in a few years your rolling PC will dump manual transmissions like your desktop PC dumped two floppy drives. The new generation of drivers will accept this with enthusiasm, and guys like me will have to go along kicking and screaming or loose interest altogether which is the most likely senario.

Ferrari can credit its wait list for 355,360, and 430 to the F1 shifter. Once the 355 F1 came out in 98, sales got very strong. yes, there may be other reasons, but the F1 opened up the market place to many, many more buyers.

Lamborghini can credit a large part of their 500% increase in production numbers to the e-gear. Without the e-gear, a lot of sales would be lost. Remember, a lot of these people who buy the cars are not hard core drivers. They do not want to deal with a stick shift. Or in many cases, they do not know how to drive a stick shift.

Personally, i like the performance of the e-gear. I could never in my wildest dreams shift as fast as it does. So I am sold on its performance. At the race track, it is wonderful

Since there is a genuine demand for it, the e-gear will not go away. If lambo stops getting orders for a manual gearbox, it will go away

quote ".... Remember, a lot of these people who buy the cars are not hard core drivers. They do not want to deal with a stick shift. Or in many cases, they do not know how to drive a stick shift."

Which, I'm sorry to say, but in in MY opinon is why they should not be driving these cars !

Kinda off topic but the other day on a VH1 special it was said that Kobe Bryant bought his wife the only automatic egear Murcielago on earth and it was all custom made as a one off just for him

Then they shows an automatic shifter that was from a Pontiac

Nora was interviewed and was saying that the egear is a $40k option, but they were acting as if Audi just rolled over for Kobe and invented it only for his poor wife to drive....That girl has a pitiful life I am sure one day the empiness will lead her down the same road as Phil hartmans wife and so many other women that have no use or purpose in life.

There are some people who buy these cars and really dont understand how the e-gear works. They drive an automatic their whole life and now they have to "think about gears and shifting".

As a lambo owner, I want lambo to be successful, but I also want it to be very exclusive. catch 22?

I belive they meant, he bought the car for his wife and had an automatic tranny (a real automatic and not e-gear) installed + some other extras and the car was 100k more expensive.