Euro climate control panel question

I have noticed that we only seem to get the auto climate control panel here in the US, while in other parts of the world they have the option of a manual climate control panel. Anyone have any experience with these, and if someone wanted to, could possibly retrofit one of these into a car to avoid the problems associated with the auto units? I don't have a car myself to play with yet, but I was not sure if you could just swap one in if the auto unit went south or not. It sounds unusually simple, hence my question. Thanks in advance.


Travmonster