[dcb]

Of course I am speaking from an ECO perspective.
They suck more gas so they are neither Economical or Ecological.

They are more complicated and cost more to build, so definately not Economical. I imagine there is also more markup on an automatic than a manual.

We are the only country in the world where grown men would whine that shifting and clutching constitutes "work". It is an embarrassment, consumers and engineers(quasi marketers) all need a bichslap. Not luddites, just tired of consumers being wasteful and engineers assuming consumers are too stupid to do things for themselves (and consumers obliging) and marketers pressing the peacock gene. It isn't a pretty picture.

It isn't hard to teach a robot how to shift, accelerate, and clutch (and/or just a well timed shift), and it could be made to do so efficiently under controlled conditions, but by the time it hits the consumer market, it will either be marginalized from an efficiency perspective, or remove all control from you and try to kill you, or both. A cvt that doesn't suck is still a long way off, and I would still want my hand on a ratio lever when they do figure out how to make an efficient one (and it better be able to coast, unlike the "smart" car).