I can understand your reluctance to give up the stick, but I think you will quickly learn to love the capabilities of the AutoStick shifter on the SRT. Lets face it..... when do you really want to shift a car? When you are in the twisties..... Right? Having just been to the Tale of the Dragon, I can tell you that I was extremely satisfied using the AutoStick shifter to get the most out of the 300+ turns. I can be accellerating through third, and slap the stick to the left as I am approaching the apex to shift into second, then WOT through second back into 3rd. There were a couple of times I had to downshift into 1st as I was closing in on traffic in front of me, but most of the time I was going between 2nd and 3rd gears. If you talk to SRT owners that truly push their cars, I think you will find that the majority of them have become enamored with the AutoStick. There are die hard manual lovers that will argue my point, and for them only a true manual will do, and that is fine. But, if you utilize the AutoStick to its full potential, I think you will come to appreciate its merits.
Another check mark for the SRT. My girlfriend has a new Subaru Imprezza with Sportshift and I have had fun with that type shifting, mostly driven in the city.
I will be trying out a few Crossfires in the next week and will form an opinion after that.
Another point was made earlier that the new auto transmissions are so fuel efficient that buying a standard shift now is counter productive. It may be that the only use of a stick shift now is to relive the days when that was all there was. Fortunately I don't need to go back to radios with tubes there is a device called an Ipod, I maybe slowly changing my mind about a stick shift.