I have pretty much had a manual transmission vehicle in the stable since starting to drive in 1970.
After bbeing run over by a Lincoln Town Car running a red light on my motorcyle in '75 (leg and ankle) and having an idiot in a 2/4 ton truck towing a 25 foot boat rear-end me in a Starion in '86 (lower back & hip), I find I am simply not able to drive 45 minutes in stop and go traffic with the clutch on my '83 ZXT.
Yes, it is fun to take out for a spin, but in the Atlanta area, everywhere you go is a traffic jam.
I have had the ZXT since '91, and for 9 years it was basic transportation, but that was always against the flow of commuter traffic (sometimes 35 miles one way).
When I moved further out and got a dose of driving it (15 miles each way, no interstate) everyday in our traffic like everyone else, I started driving the Q45 which I had bought as an "our car" for when we were both together on weekends and on trips (the ZXT and her Stanza both manuals and rather noisy on the interstates).
When I get around to freshening the ZXT, I am seriously considering adapting a 200R4 or 4L60e to it and driving it more. The Flowfit seats are comfortable all day, more so than the Q's or the Lincoln Town Car seats.
The Q is now my wfe's car and the Town Car is what I drive (got rid of the POS Stanza and bought her the Town Car, but she doesn't drive much, and between the miles and the cost of premium.....). I will say the that Lincoln sedats a far more comfortable than the Q45's though.
The real reason autos are so popular is that they leave a hand free to apply makeup, hold cell phones and lattes and flip people off....