I dunno, I’ve driven manuals quite a bit when I was young and there are highly over rated. When I’m towing, I use the paddle shift and I find it quite distracting and a bother to have to shift all the time. I think today you get as much utility out of an automatic as a manual and clutches are not cheap anymore. Plus, you don’t have to make a long term commitment on a car. They are traded all the time when needs and desires trade. There is nothing honorable to hanging onto a car for ten years. So automatic it is. The only advantage of a manual is that the new generation of car thieves don’t seem to be able to drive them or haven’t read the manual yet. And hills?