Well, I've owned a pair of 2008 Honda Ranchers for eight months now, and I suppose that's long enough for me to review them.  I got the manual shift, while my wife got the electric shift.

I've got to say, I'm not a big fan of the electric shift.  It controls when you can and can't shift into the different gears, so most of the time you're left pushing the shift button several times to achieve the gear that you want.  You can't even shift into neutral unless you're going less than 2 MPH, which seems ridiculous to me.

As far as my machine goes, I love it.  It would be nice to have a low-range gearbox, but so far I haven't had much of a need for low-range.  My main concerns before purchasing (this was my first ATV purchase) were cooling and starting, but the liquid-cooled engine and EFI have eliminated any fears that I had.  I did recently have a leaky front differential, which is currently being fixed under warranty, but other than that the first eight months of ownership have been great.

I suppose my expectations weren't all that high being a first-time ATV owner, but I'm happy with my Honda purchase.  I've never ridden anything else, so I don't have much for comparison.  Hopefully after meeting up with some friends and riding along with other machines, I'll have a good basis for comparison in the future.