The "manual gets better mileage" thing is a myth that depends upon the skill of the driver. Around here I can always tell a manual driver by how the car rocks back and forth as they accelerate! I'd say less than half the people driving manuals SHOULD be.
I was able to drive my first 2 manual cars as smoothly as an auto, but when I inherited my mother's old automatic in college I was ecstatic. Finally no more foot-dancing and hand spastic rotations in traffic!

There is no "joy of driving" in Florida. The roads are flat besides overpasses, and those are all built so the trucks can drive them easily. I never downshifted for braking, I just stuck it in neutral. Corners are almost always 90 degrees at a light or stop sign. Turns are made at 15 mph tops. On the big roads you might have a "kink" of 10-15 degrees, but you won't feel the car change direction it's so slight.
There is no snow or ice to worry about, just water on the road, and that doesn't matter.
Unless you're driving at 3 AM, there's never less than 10 cars around you at a distance of maybe 20-30 ft, all of whom are on their damn cellphones (because they drive automatics), so unless you're a masochist you get an automatic to reduce the stress of driving in pretty much the only way you can.

Maybe if a nuke was dropped here there would be few enough cars on the road to make it enjoyable, but as I posted a few weeks back, we've seen an increase in population of 3 million people in the last decade and we have no new highways, just a few that were widened here and there. All the same roads now carrying a LOT more people.

Those of you who talk about how you have fun driving?
I hate you.


The Jedi Master

wouldnt drive an automatic if you paid me, slow clumsy, expensive pieces of over engineered rubbish.

Besides driving is fun, automatics take all the fun out of something and leave you with something so functional its almost Vulcan!

If I want to be entertained while driving I just fire up one of my PC racing sims.

If you drove manual you would understand Adam. Theres entertainment, theres recreation. Then theres the simple pleasure of being in control of a machine. I find it most confusing as you Yanks love your guns etc for the reasons of the power and control etc. Well its exactly the same thing with a car. With a proper car you are the one directly controlling the machine, its a part of you. you have the power, you have the control.

PS, Adam, i might have to start calling you Vulcanmeyer :P

If you drove manual you would understand Adam. Theres entertainment, theres recreation. Then theres the simple pleasure of being in control of a machine. I find it most confusing as you Yanks love your guns etc for the reasons of the power and control etc. Well its exactly the same thing with a car. With a proper car you are the one directly controlling the machine, its a part of you. you have the power, you have the control.

PS, Adam, i might have to start calling you Vulcanmeyer :P

The "manual gets better mileage" thing is a myth that depends upon the skill of the driver. Around here I can always tell a manual driver by how the car rocks back and forth as they accelerate! I'd say less than half the people driving manuals SHOULD be.

If you drove manual you would understand Adam. Theres entertainment, theres recreation. Then theres the simple pleasure of being in control of a machine. I find it most confusing as you Yanks love your guns etc for the reasons of the power and control etc. Well its exactly the same thing with a car. With a proper car you are the one directly controlling the machine, its a part of you. you have the power, you have the control.

PS, Adam, i might have to start calling you Vulcanmeyer :P