The trouble with any auto is that when you start from rest you're starting from idling speed - usually under 1,000 rpm.. When you set off in a manual, you use a bit of acceleration as you release the clutch - anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 rpm.
So there will always be a little hesitation for that reason - how much depends on the characteristics of each engine. Turbodiesels I suspect have more lag than average: six-cylinder petrol BMWs very little, even the autos.
I'm no mechanic, but I'd have thought that a dual-clutch gearbox - whatever its other failings and the question-marks over its longevity - would be better in this particular respect than a torque-converter auto.
I my experience (as someone who has driven many automatic cars over the years with power outputs ranging from under 50bhp to more than 350bhp), in an automatic car, unless you are beside a particularly determined foe, you will inevitably get away from the lights quicker than an equivalent manual car.
My wife currently has a hyundai i30 turbo diesel automatic, it only has 108bhp, but the way it leaps away from traffic lights or across roundabouts, you would think it has twice that!. And while i may not often be in a position to do this, any time i have been (for whatever reason), i have always come out in front, often when up against cars which, in theory, should utterly destroy the hyundai!.
I think it may be due to the fact that there are so many drivers on the road, who, to be honest, dont really know what they are doing. They buy a manual gearbox, because whatever car magazine they read tells them that is best and that is what a 'proper driver' would choose. But you need skill to extract the maximum acceleration from a manual gearbox, and (in my experience) most drivers dont, and clearly cant be bothered to learn. Whereas in an automatic, you just floor the throttle!.
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