I learned how to drive a stick, but was not good at it. Too uncoordinated. I greatly prefer the car to handle the shifting for me.
I really enjoy driving a Nissan with a CVT transmission - have had no trouble with it after 130 K miles (though I have read where that is unusual).
I drove my preowned ‘07 Murano into the proverbial ground, with the CVT finally giving up around 150k. Extended warranty covered it (saving me thousands in repairs), only for the ‘new’ transmission to start going bad a few months later. Given that that particular model of CVT is no longer manufactured (per the guys at the Nissan dealership), I can only assume any extent transmissions would be similarly iffy.
The only pre-owned vehicle available that was under 100k while ALSO being priced under $10,000 was a manual Mazda 3. That was worth teaching myself how to drive a manual.
Fortunately, there are plenty of YouTube videos to learn how to drive a stick.
After two weeks, I’ve concluded that driving manual has made driving much more fun and enjoyable.