Reliability of the tiptronic transmission

[egjohnson]

Recently had my S4 stolen which had the 6 speed transmission in it. Once I'm done arguing with the insurance company over the "fair market" value of the car, I plan on getting another (obviously my opinion of fair is higher than theirs). What I have noticed is that their are a lot more automatic's available in my area compared to manual. So what I'm wondering is are these any more/less reliable. I'd also like to know if there were any other differences in the configuration of the engine in those cars that have the tiptronic transmission.

Thanks for the help!

Erik