I get really annoyed by car journalists obsession with manuals. I’ve driven and owned manual cars in my life, and they are cool, but also inconvenient, annoying to drive in traffic, and now objectively slower and less efficient than a modern automatic.
Fun on a backroad is not a huge factor in buying a car for the vast majority of people. And even a person like me, that enjoys a spirited drive, I don’t want to deal with a manual the other 85% of the time.
I just want them to recognize that and stop putting manuals on a pedestal.