Lane, it seems that you live in the NL. Right?
So, from my experience (BMW 530d Touring with AT and steptronic =geartronic) and a S60D5 manual) I can say:
- do what you like most. No one can help you.
I personally can say, that the AT at least adds one litre per 100km in consumption. The simple speed-up is not worse in AT than in manual. The manual switches gears much more often than you would do in the AT.
here in germany "bigger" cars more and more are ordered with AT. But calculated hard, they are not worth the money. Changing gears is not that difficult.... Exept one single point: driving a lot in heavy traffic and beeing in need to drink cofee while driving (in my personal opinion and no offense to anybody) drinking coffee while driving is one of the worst "un"-cultural things a society can do... And: if you tow a caravan/boat or trailer.
Please do several test-drivings and decide on your own. Here in germany a BMW 530d without AT is hard to resell, now.
Jürgen