And I've never driven an automatic that couldn't manually be placed in the best gear for the situation. Too many automatic drivers just want to put it in "D" and forget about it. If I'm loaded or towing heavy, or driving in mountains I'm manually changing gears quite often, especially going down.
That doesn't meet the need here. I'm going to go so far as to say "you're wrong" but I'm going to try to explain why so as not to start a fight.
It is pretty mountainous here. One of my favorite roads .. gets me to my hunting spot .. is steep in sections and curvy in sections but it also has some flat and straight, some flat and curvy, some steep and straight. The conditions change so quickly that changing what gear you're in with an automatic is an absolute pain in the ass. It'll cost 10-15 minutes driving from hunting to home .. at least it does me. The problem is that the shifters on the automatics aren't intuitive / "by feel" well enough.
Picture coming down a long hill straight ahead at 65-70 going into some 30-35 mph turns, a short straight stretch, maybe a little uphill, then another steeper drop with turns, straights, etc. It's easy with a stick, it's a pain in the ass with an automatic. You could just slow down but if you do you'll trigger a road rage incident from the people behind you who are more able to drive the road conditions. I don't want to be that self-centered dick behind the wheel.
