"Stick," "manual" and "standard" all mean the same thing in the U.S.A. Most cars sold here are automatics of varying quality. I don't know why they're so popular, but they are. I can understand why they are superior for city driving, but out in the sticks it makes no difference.

Maybe the fact that so many Americans live in high-density, stop-and-go cities is the reason? Dunno.

It's not a religious issue for me, but if you buy a car with manual transmission, a lot of people here won't be able to drive it. So both of the used cars we bought were auto. Why fight the tide? The sedan has a very nice German-made automatic transmission that allows you to control your RPMs with paddles on the steering wheel, so if you really, truly need to hold a gear, you can.