Manual gearbox, main reason - because that's what I wanted. I do enjoy going through the gears, I think I've only had LH/LF out of synch once in two years. Plus I love doing my hill starts, I'm quite adept at them.

I travel around 450km per week to and from work, a large percentage of which is on the freeway. Snick it into 6th gear, engage C/C set to 100km/h, wave at the speed cameras.

I have owned an auto, Mazda 929 between 1975 and 1982, the one and only time I've had one, not really for me.