I drove the TDI with the automatic in the hills outside of Quincy. The car hauled butt, elegantly. The hard plastic was generally out of reach, but I agree that the fan was loud and the clock looked cheap. That said, the only problem I had with it was that I wasn't selecting the gears myself. The manual is coming, and I will definitely check it out. I'm apparently not the target audience though. I think they'll sell a ton of these with the automatic. That's a good thing, as this will likely mean that we will see more models with a TDI under the hood.