I have heard this several times now. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in here. My understanding is that putting in the automatic in sports cars started as a way to help sell the car because the wife could drive it too. I also had a friend that has always has to have automatic corvettes for this very reason. He hates them but can't get one any other way and his wife refuses to learn how to drive a stick.

I myself was looking for a used C5 corvette and noticed that people with really low miles on them did not denote which transmission they had. I would always call and that would be my first question. They would always reply in the "I just lost the sale" voice saying it was an automatic.

-marc