I like manual transmissions because I tend to drive older cars. I could buy a newer car, I have a job and money in the bank, but then I would have less money in the bank in case of an emergency. When you have a problem with an automatic transmission, it tends to be expensive. Most of the time when you have a problem with a manual transmission, it's not even in the transmission. It's a bushing or a mount or the clutch.
Traditional automatic transmissions CAN be good, but most of them suck. CVTs CAN be good, but most of them are fragile. So manuals it is.
I'd rather own an EV, but it's not practical for me yet. That is, a used Leaf or i-MIEV literally cannot get me to work and back with their typical battery life, a better used EV would be out of my self-imposed budget, and I don't have a place to charge off-street anyway.
If I had to commute every day I might look at freeing up space in my driveway so that I could do that, right now there is an RV parked there, and it's quite expensive to store it someplace good. I had it in a place only $50/mo, but it was RIGHT on the water, I'm not trying to convert it into a pile of rust. I am only in office one day a week, and that currently costs me about $7/gal * 1 gallon * 2 directions = $14/week in fuel, or around $60/mo. $720/year is very doable. I also live in Northern California, in a county which has no spare capacity, so given my price per kWh there's not a lot of savings in an EV anyway.
Until something changes substantially, it makes a lot more sense for me to keep driving my current vehicle. Even if the engine asplode I could just get another one dropped in for a couple grand, there's TONS of them around.