Well I'm the other way to you. For the last twenty years, with the exception of my kitcar, all my cars have been automatic by choice. Indeed I had a long search to find one particular car in auto format, the majority being manuals.
Earlier this year I bought a '15 Swift Lifestyle also based on a Ducato and my one big regret with it, is that it isn't an auto to the the extent that I'm trying to get quotes to convert it. To be fair I have found over the 4,000 miles we've done in it this year has been motorway based so the advantage of auto has been less pronoiunced than round town driving where auto really does come into it's own
My extensive experience with autos has been exemplary from a reliability and ease of use point of view. I have never had a breakdown caused by gearbox and in fact the only gearbox problem we've had in our family was with my son's two year old manual Landrover that ended up costing the warranty provider £3k.
The other point you should consider is that the base vehicle, the Fiat Ducato, is primarily designed and built for commercial van usage so the vehicle and especially the drivetrain is robustly built to handle the potential abuse of van drivers and is unlikely to be a problem for us careful more mature drivers
hmy: