I had an automatic for a while. Now I have my VWBeattle. At first I didn't like driving manual but it grew on me. The plus side is you have to pay attention. I use to live really far out of town so if you didn't have to do much work you'd get drowsy easily.

I think that's also why there are bad drivers. They don't have to pay attention. They don't notice you have to shift down if you're going around a corner too slow. Nope they just go super slow and cause you to have to down shift, which is a pain when you were taking that corner at 30. :/ People are just lazy and don't pay attention.

My sister has a Ford Focus. It's a manual as well but it comes on with arrows when you need to shift up or down. So that whole, "it takes an expert", it really doesn't. The same thing applies. To get better gas mileage it'll tell you when to shift so instead of the car doing it it's self to get the best gas mileage it just tells you.

My moms 07 Pontiac G6 can switch between the two, manual and automatic. I think it has the same thing where it tells you when to shift.