I drove manual up till a hip replacement at 30 then went auto, wouldn’t go back now, I’ve had the occasional 24 hr test drive in a manual and it seems such a faff on now. Saying that auto gearboxes vary in quality, as mentioned above the bmw auto is the best I’ve had, I’m currently in a Mercedes auto and in my opinion has one gear too many (8) in trying to be economical, for example it can quite easily be in 5th or even 6th gear at 30mph and seem sluggish and laboured even with 190bhp so I’m constantly dropping a gear with the paddles to get what I feel is the right gear