I agree with Roger, get a transmission with overdrive. After driving my car 1200 miles this year, I know that I would have hated it, with a 3 speed auto and no overdrive.

Without an overdrive, the other alternative that used to be popular was to use a taller rear end ratio, like 3.0, instead of the 3.5 ratio that I chose for my car. Even that only gives you a 17% taller gear, while an overdrive is typically 30%. I set my car up to run 2100 rpm at 80 mph.

New cars have both a tall rear end ratio and overdrive, but the transmission has a lower 1st gear to produce the same overall 1st gear ratio as I have with a very tall top gear, with the overdrive 6th. Cruising rpm at 80 might be as low as 1600-1800 rpm.