I grew up in Europe and have been used to driving with a stick shift. I used to think that it was a sin to drive a sports car with an auto in it. The auto in the crossfire is so good though and you can slap stick your shifts I have to say I find it better then the manual. I have driven both and was not too impressed with the stick version of the crossfire. I didn't buy the first one I drove because of the stick. After reading about the auto trans and hearing good things I test drove one and now I am a crossfire owner. I guess its a matter of preference but to me I just thought that the manual 6 speed didn't measure up to the quality of the chassis, motor and suspension. While the Auto seems better suited to the whole package. Its hard to find fault with a 5 speed auto from mercedes. The only gripe I can say is that when you are sifting in manual mode the up/down shifts could happen faster.