Is that porky R32 Golf available with a manual outside of the USA? DSG only here.

 

+1 my sentiments exactly.

 

Yes. Ironically when the Mark IV R32 came over here in 2004 folks were upset that they didn't offer DSG, it was manual only in the US. The Mark V is(was) just the opposite, DSG only here. Interesting tidbit about the Veyron...VAG tuners are still kind of scared of pushing too much torque through the DSG transmissions, obviously not a problem on the Bugatti. The difference is it's considered somewhat expendable in the Veyron, it is expected not to last too long with the tremendous horsepower and torque running through it. Incidentally, Car and Driver's test a couple of months ago said only 240 of the planned 300 Veyrons have been built so far, now that is a rare car.

 

For long run (for example: 100,000+ miles, 6+ years), I will recommend manual transmission. It has much longer life than automatic, has better mileage, you control the power of the engine, control shifting, so on. But you have go through headache of shifting, specially in start/stop traffic.

 

Only gripe I have (after almost 4 years) for the slushbox is it does not program to blip throttle during down shift. It could upset the chassis sometimes.