Im new to the car world, and I want a 6 speed standuard and was curious on whats different about the two, besides the shifting.

 

Nothing worth mentioning except you have to shift the manual and you don't with the automatic.

 

and automatics shift quicker

 

Automatics shift quicker, and the torque converter tends to give them an edge, sometimes, off the line (especially if the stall speed as been upped). But they usually have one (or two) fewer gears. As a result, they tend to be slower in the quarter, no so much so with Camaros and 'vettes because this matters less with the broad torque band of a V8. That said its pretty close one way of the other but the convention wisdom is that an M6 will be a bit faster if the cars are stock, but slower if they are modified: I doubt our M6 Camaro could out drag a similarly-modified Camaro with an A4: probably lose by two tenths in the 1/8th and one tenth in the 1/4 but pull ahead in the half mile.

One thing about automatics is how smart they are when they need to kcik down a gear or two and accelerate. What I didn't like, personally, about the GM A4 (haven't driven the new A6 in the '06 vette) is the kickdown - it was too slow to kick down when you punched the throttle down and then came on too abruptly: I test drove an new 400 HP GTO with the auto when I was buying a new car several months ago, and didn't think I could live with that in day to day traffic. In particular I do this test: I enter a corner (not a curve, a corner) slowing on the brakes and at about 20 mph and when halfway through punch the throttle about 2/3 down to see what happens. The GTO paused too long (I was through the corner by the time is downshifted), delivering no power while it downshifted, and then came in with a jerk and too much power.

By contrast, the much smarter computer control on the "Tiptronic" automatic five-speed in my Porsche is why I bought an automatic version of the car, driving it later that same day, through the same corner as a matter of fact. It did great: instant kick down, no over reaction on the amount of power. Perfect for day to day driving. Its seems to be almost intuitive, it will kick down instantly one, two, or even three gears depending . . . always just the right amount. That woulnd't matter in racing but is a key to whether you like the car in daily driving. (I'm not knocking the GM automatics beyond saying you need to check things like this in any car you buy to see if it is compatible with the style of your driving).