Unless a transmission is likely to gain sentience, burst forth from within the car, and attack passers-by, I don't see how the number of gears has any affect on coolness. Extreme examples, where the transmission ruins any chance of decent progress (the ForTwo's awful, jerky shifter - though that car is painfully uncool anyway) are one thing, but a half-century old car shouldn't be held to modern standards. Nor could I imagine a pretty lady being picked up in one, only to scoff at the comparative lack of ratios. In fact, the only people I can imagine making a big deal about it are the manuals-on-everything-always, brown-diesel-wagon-driving Jalopnik contingent.
