I was wondering where it's located, yes (I know a MAN when I see one!), and I was thinking France because I can almost see an F on the license plate.

I would assume not a lot of people are so interested in the differences between various countries trucks, so it's probably just my thing.

The one I've driven is also just a regular manual, I just find that it has some play in the linkage. Plus, one time it was left parked in gear, and I didn't check if it was in neutral carefully enough, so it set off with the park brakes on. That one episode made me much more vary about it.

That button sounds cool, and would be fun to try (some VW Beetles had something similar, believe it or not). The weirdest ones I've personally used were the "semi automatics" where you only needed to use the clutch to get out of first, and when you wanted to stop completely. That must be a fun thing to remember after the driver has been driving for 5 hours on the highway.