I'll gladly pay the extra 2-3k for the auto transmission.

Manual transmission may be more fun when you're driving a real
sports car on an open stretch of road with little/no traffic, but i
don't think 'passion for driving' comes into play at all when
you're regularly stuck in the morning and evening rush hour traffic
everyday, 365 days a year, as i'm sure everyone who has to drive
himself to work everyday will know. 