I believe the reason for the automatics is the coupe is seen as more of a family car. As for dual vanos problems I believe that if the engine receives proper maintenance there shouldn't be a problem just as with any engine. There are an awful lot of dual vanos engines out there performing properly with only a small percentage with this problem. If you look on enough forums you'll note that there can be a panic situation once one or two people have a specific problem for little or no reason. The broken welds in the trunk area is a very good example. It is usually found with high rev launching and prolonged doing donuts stressing the rear of the car and repeated flexing of the welds causing premature failure. JIM