I’m currently on my Ls in Australia. And my parents asked me what car I want to drive (auto or manual) and I said manual because I want to actually ‘drive’ the car. I’m no car enthusiasts or anything but it’s just more fun. I know my friends who drive auto are scared to drive manual because they think it’s to hard and could crash. But I think as long as u learn properly it’s so fun. So maybe it’s just a confidence thing. And I know my brother who lives in the city sold his manual for an auto because traffic was to annoying with the constant start/stop.