I own both. Auto Pros: Crazy fast in a straight line, Good in traffic, Gets power down a bit better. Cons: Expensive to fix if something breaks or continues to break, milkshake concern, takes allot of the "fun" out of the car. Manual Pros: Rock solid, rarely do people break them even with big power, great fun to drive. Cons: Noisy and clunky, a pain in the arse in stop start traffic. As far as driving in the wet I think the auto's more dangerous, that kick down has nearly put me into a wall/tree a few times, manual is much more predictable and you get feel it go rather then randomly down gearing and hitting you with full power like the auto can.