I know I wouldn't have purchased mine if it had a manual tranny. The AMG transmission does a great job of "knowing" when you want it to cruise and when you want it to play. It has to be the most intelligent automatic I've ever driven. The transmission changed my "hotrod" SRT perception of the SRT6 on the first test drive. The car feels graceful and elegant, despite it's rowdy capability when you romp on the gas.