You should get a manual transmission. If you sold your auto tranny and bought a manual one with that $, it'd be a lot easier to just swap that over than doing the conversion. It will also cost some dough to buy all the stuff to make your car an auto. If you do decide to get a manual tranny, don't get a CX one. I have the stock motor and tranny in my CX right now. And I eat my clutch daily because I have to rev to 2,000 RPMs and slip the clutch to get it to move and not stall. Other wise the ideal one would be the VX and then the DX. The VX does have long gears but they are not as bad as the CX. And you would be able to stay in 1 gear while between stops (aka not having to shift to 3rd and back).