Here in Uruguay it's also 99% manual, but I suspect it's because it's cheaper. An equivalent automatic transmission adds one or two thousand dollars to the car

Here in Uruguay it's also 99% manual, but I suspect it's because it's cheaper. An equivalent automatic transmission adds one or two thousand dollars to the car, which is unaffordable to most (for no perceived gain). We buy lots of Indian-made cars here (mostly Marutis but some Tatas too), the other cheap cars being Chinese.