Stick shift? Forget that. Maybe on a performance car that's purely for fun driving. I drove a Mazda with a stupid stiff clutch pedal while recovering from ACL surgery in awful traffic for 80+ miles a day for about 8 months. Give me an automatic any day of the week.

Besides, I think almost all autos now have a manual shift function. Definitely not the same, but you can still really chose your gear if you want to.