It's a known FACT that with a stick shift you get better gas mileage and I'm 59! And all of the cars I've driven they all had or have been manual and it's the best!
How's the exhaust holding up? The only things I added on my 21 hatch se 6MT: 2J base and shifter cable bushings, weighted billetworkz shift knob, and a redline goods leather shift boot.
Nope, no drone as long as you keep the remark exhaust together. Modify it and it may drone. I modified my catback and it sounds amazing, very loud now.