One argument an autonmatic could be made by anyone in a metropolitan area where you may spend cosiderable time inching along in heavy traffic.
Been there done that.
After carefully planning my trip to avoid metro areas during peak traffic I passed through Salt Lake just after a big accident on the freeway. I don't know Salt Lake and didn't want to bail off the freeway with a 22 foot long pickup and 24 foot long trailer to wander around trying to get past the traffic jam. Fortunately that truck was an automatic and the air conditioning worked fine.
