Porsche got a lot of backlash when it was rumored they were going to kill off the manual. Now you can get gt3's and 4's with a stick just like the 997's. And that's a company that has the best dual clutch made. People enjoy manuals. It's a really simple argument and I don't understand why it...
The Ecoboost series are great. 107k on my 2.0 with lots of hard driving in there. Zero issues. They had teething issues when they first came out but none of the options listed are new unknown engines. They have track records. They're solid.