I used to own an auto 2.4i and I'd agree with most of what you've said. It was comfortable (possibly the most comfortable I've owned) and capable, but never exciting.

Fuel consumption got to 29mpg over about 40k miles, but the autobox started to really annoy me after a while. It was smooth enough but never seemed to be able to decide what gear it wanted to be in, even after a couple of times back to the dealer and a software upgrade.

The last straw for me was driving it around Cornwall (south west England for non-UK readers) behind my mate's 2.0T manual S60. Every time I hit a gradient it'd be up and down the gearbox like a yo-yo, and the S60 totally left me behind despite being a bigger car with not much more power.

I eventually changed it for a BMW 320d E91 - manual this time!