I did all of my IFR training and check ride with the autopilot off. The airplane is really out of rig and as soon as you let it go, it will roll to the left. I did my instrument training in 5 days and took the checkride on the 6th day. Over 7 hours a day and a third of that was IMC, the rest under the hood. It was not fun, but doable. Now that I'm rated, I do use the autopilot IMC but I usually shoot the approaches without it, especially if I'm VMC. I haven't had an autopilot failure yet but I would probably cancel a trip if something was wrong with the plane, especially a long one. I just don't like taking off with something broken.