

all of my HO's disagree with your HO's.  I LOVED Dallas rush hour in my stick..
detested it in the auto(like i did any other time in the auto...).  Of course,
Dalls rush hours are nothing, from what i hear..if i lived in LA, i might
be of a different persuasion.  And, just for the record, rarely do you shift
gears when merging into traffic..that is what 5 speeds are good for..4th is
good up through around 80-90, most of the time, so you can just wind it out..
it's not going to hurt anything, and keeps it in the powerband anyway..
only shift into top gear when you are exceeding redline in 4th(fairly rare,
unless you drive a ferrari or some such, i'd bet) or when you hit cruising 
speed where you feel comfortable(or when my mother is sitting in the 
passanger seat complaining about how you wind her "poor little engine" way
too hi :-)
Just my HO's..