[CORed]

I'm a confirmed stick shift driver, but I have to say that automatic transmissions are a lot better than they used to be. A lot of them now even work reasonably well in mountain driving. Twenty years ago, if you drove an auto in the mountains, you expected to have to manually downshift a lot. On uphills, they would constantly shift up and down if you didn't and you would have to manually downshift on downhills to keep from over-using the brakes. A lot of autos now will pick the correct gear and stay in it on uphills, and, with cruise control, some will even downshift autmatically on downhills.

OTOH, I honestly can' see getting a sporty type car and handicapping it with an automatic, unless you have wife or girlfriend who insists on the auto. Once you learn to operate a stick, it becomes well, automatic, and it gives you a little more control over the car.