I'm guessing everybody with an auto has no answer for all that but... I've had many vehicles with a stick, but I really HATE it in heavy traffic and we have plenty of that here . On the other hand, I love the auto. with the traffic we have in this area. My X is 70% in town and 30% in the wilderness, if I'm lucky. So heavy traffic features win. Maybe if I lived in a less heavily populated area, I would be driving a stick, but like the other person said if you are multitasking in heavy traffic an automatic is nice! lj