My wife had the opposite point of view. We missed buying a 289 auto by one day and ended up with a 200 cid sixer and a 3-speed. She thought it was a great trade-off cuz she's a farm girl who learned to drive on a tractor. I just know that converting the V8 to a manual trannywould have been a lot cheaper thantrying to makemy Sprint 200 into a V8. In the end, it's a classic and I'm just glad to have it.