I rented a v6 (I think it was the 3.6) for a week to see if I'd like the car in general and I found the v6 to be very underpowered. Now that was not an 8 speed but in my opinion no matter how many speeds you have it’s not really going to help power. Now fuel economy is a different story. I’ve also heard the reliability of the v6’s are not that good and with 8 speeds that a lot of things to break

Could you possibly put the empeg in the console or perhaps use a display extender? I have my DVD, CD, HD Radio, head unit in my Jeep’s console. While inconvenient it does fit and is stealth.