I hear you guys for sure on the logic of your preference.

I was thinking more  of out of town use...major trip use, even 'this is
my survival capsul' use for vanagons - -  about the advantages of manual
over AT.
   My daily driver turbo 740 Volvo is an automatic..
just love it, push-botton shifting out of an into 4th overdrive ratio ..
Super sweet.
It's happy to cruise at 80 in the country ...does fine it traffic too.

On a long distance camping trip though ..for a vanagon ..I'll take
manual trans every time.

It comes down to intended and mostly use.
If driving a manual trans in traffic a lot ..
either change transmission type or lifestyle I suggest.

On 1/22/2014 6:46 PM, Ben wrote:
> My sentiment exactly. Converted my 88 Doka to auto with ABA hybrid inline-4 (not that kind of hybrid). Have a turbo 2.2 Subie in the GL. If there was an economical way to turn a Syncro to auto, I'd be there too.:-)
>
> Still have some manual trans cars. It's just there are more and more situations where the auto is the practical solution, IMHO.
>
>
> BenT
> sent from my electronic leash
>
>> On Jan 22, 2014, at 6:29 PM, Larry Alofs <lalofs@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>>   I grew up driving every type of car, truck, and tractor imaginable and...(snip) but for daily driving I'll take an AT.
>>
>> Larry A.