hey pickles its just like petrified.rabbit said. long days at work, traffic sometimes or mainly as fun as the stick is, and the amount of mpg I get out of my cruze eco I just sometimes would rather just have the auto instead. less thinking involved. as far as the wifes sonic is concerned she absolutely loves it! as much as we both loved the first gen aveo the new sonic is a completely different level of driving experience. its larger, feels more solid, feels more powerful, has built in bluetooth and all around just better. I have to say the aveo has evolved very nicely. the only reason I bought the cruze over the sonic sedan is that its was only a couple thousand more and had a little more room although the backseat legroom in it is completely useless. no space at all!