I'll start this with the fact that YES, I can drive manual- a little. My father's mitsubishi magna is the only manual car we own, and everyone I know (dad included) thats so much as touched it tells me its an absolute bitch to drive, and is not a good example of a manual gearbox. I drove it for a bit, and just straight up gave up because it was too hard (about 6 months into the first stage of license-holding here in Australia- you are to be instructed and supervised by a fully licensed driver at all times while operating the vehicle, and can not exceed 80 km/h) Fast forward another 5 months, I gave manual another go in a brand new Yaris, with a driving instructor. Pretty much no problems whatsoever, did a few hill starts no problem and was wondering why everyone said it was hard.
My current license (provisional 1, followed by provisional 2, then full) is for auto only, so I'm stuck with auto for now. I have no real issue with driving auto, its still fun. I do have issues with manual elitists. What is the problem- why cant we drive what we want to drive, instead of 'having a magical connection with the car through the gearbox', get over yourself buddy.
/endrant