Vroooom!!

HI, Need some advice please. I'm looking to buy an Impreza Preferably a 96WRX(as I'm not minted) I've been looking about and found the perfect car...except it was an automatic, now i'm not a big fan of auto's but I went along to see the car anyways. She was really nice just imported beautiful body only 35,000 MILES. I took her out and she drove nicely and flew when I dared to give her sum welly. However I am still not convinced that I would enjoy driving the Auto as much as a Manual. there was one other thing I noticed, on the vehicles ID plate it read the wrong code for the car it was, The plate read GC8B48P, the car was registered a 96 and should have been GC8C48P I put this down to bad translation of the original Jap Logbook as I saw the original (all in Jap) and the translation document which did say 96.
Any way enough of my story, Are there any happy Auto owners out there? how does the Auto compare to the Manual in performance figures,should I hang out for what I really want(manual)? This car I viewed was perfect for me in every other way(price,colour, miles,etc)but I can't make my mind up(probably sold by now..Thanks loads. Think i posted this on the wrong page before doh!!! CYA