Have you considered the safety involved in a AP. I use mine regularly when the weather is less then favorable. Lets you look for towers and such with you having to worry about flying the airplane. That was one of the first things I put on my plane before I went to AK. I once flew into a cloud in the mountains at low altitude. I decided the safest thing to do was climb. 15-20 min later I broke out on top at 8000’. Unfortunately my auto pilot was broke. I hadn’t flown IMC in years. I had to convince my self to trust my instruments which was extremely difficult because I never use them. It wasn’t fun and I would have given anything for my AP. I ended up at 11000’ to stay on top. I got a pop up IFR and got back down 2 1/2 hrs later. So my point is one day you might just need it to get out of a bind. Things happen fast sometimes and you’ll wish you had one.
Chuck