Hey Specta I don't have personal expierance with the exact ATVs you are asking about, but I have owned Hondas before and I currently own Cats.

The first set of Hondas we had were manual trannys, but are last set were the ES models. My Wife's Recon worked ok, but my Rancher use to shift hard. Sometimes you had to really tach the gear out before it would shift at all.

The Cats we have now are autos. It took some getting use to, but it is nice to just get out there and ride. Definetly like the ride better than the Hondas, like the looks better and the fuel mileage seems a little better too.

One negative I found or I should say I feel is the torque. With the Hondas, you can ride the gears out a little longer and get that snappiness out of it. Helps when you want to pull the front end up to get over things. The Cats with the autos require a bit more work as you don't get that snappiness out of it when you hit the throttle.

With that said, I still prefer the Cats.