I assumed the transmission problems you mentioned were auto transmission problems, not manual transmission problems. Friend of mine had a manual CRV. Seemed to drive quite well.

I agree on the heavy traffic thing though. My car is great at speed, but a pain in stop-start traffic. Consequently I leave a bit of a gap so I can idle through in first or second. Mind you, this seems to reaaaally piss off some drivers, who seem to think I do this just to let in other cars ahead of me.