I just picked up a 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited, 6 speed manual.  Didn't even think about getting it in an automatic.  The new fancy automatics with paddle shifters are faster at shifting and all that other stuff but for me, there is nothing like pushing in the clutch and shifting the gears.

Manual transmission is often an age related choice. Younger "hot rod" mentalities will want manual, while those who who are not, may prefer automatic transmission.

I always bought manual in smaller cars, because they were more efficient. No longer buy smaller cars, as I have gotten older, and like more comfort.

There is probably not any true cost differences, overall, in ownership. you will have to put clutches in manual transmissions, and automatics cost more to fix.

I agree that automatic transmissions are better all the time. I can be talked into believing that there may be some performance or economical advantage to automatics nowadays. Facts are facts, if that's where the facts lie.

But it's the feel, the mastery, and like I said before, more of the sense that you're driving, less of the sense that you're a passenger in your own car. And I'm about 90 years old, give or take a century. It's not an age thing here.

When our kids were growing up, I did my fair share of driving them and their friends around. Some of their friends didn't realize they were in a manual transmission car until they noticed that I was shifting, and then they were admiring. You don't get that type of affirmation out of driving an automatic. "Hey, I thought you were driving an automatic... oh, you are."

Hills, you just have to be good with the parking brake. You stop, throw in the clutch, pull up the brake. When the light turns green, you apply the throttle, let out the clutch, let off the brake in one smooth motion. If you know how to do it and you do it right, it's another reinforcement that you're actually driving and doing it well.

I will give up my manual transmission when they pry my cold dead hands off the gearshift knob. Yes, probably after missing a shift or killing it by popping the clutch. Whatever.