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In addition to having good mileage, manual transmissions give you more options in lugging along in low gears. Cars that allow you to take over shift points are probably almost as good. Basic automatics assume average driving, and will only shift for average mileage: avoid them.
If you want to go more extreme, there are other things to look for. Power steering and brakes become nonexistant during EOC: avoid them if you want to use EOC. Boattails/Kammbacks become easier (possible) in hatchbacks that only need the hatch extended, not the whole car past the roof redone.
There are a few transmissions out there that can be changed. There is a saturn thread on this board on how to change 5th gear. Some of the toyota (and scion) 5 speed sticks can take an extra gear by just adding it and a few extra parts. This is and old trick: if you buy an old car with 4 speeds, find out if a junkyard might contain the parts for a 5th.
Finally the most important part of the car is the driver. Drivers can often be improved by reading this board, and a scangauge (or better yet: MPGuino).
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