I agree that all cheap cars in the Netherlands are manual. Especially the under 10.000 euro small kind of car like a Hyundai i10, small Kia or similar. But ove

I agree that all cheap cars in the Netherlands are manual. Especially the under 10.000 euro small kind of car like a Hyundai i10, small Kia or similar. But over the last few years the automatic has increased dramatically in popularity with the more serious brands like BMW and Audi. Not just in their top models, BMW has been selling an 8 speed automatic as standard even on the 1-series. A big part of that is because modern automatic gearboxes are not slow and boring anymore. The dual-clutch type really made sales increase. And so does the increase in hybrid and electric cars which are very popular due to tax reasons and all of them are automatic. The driving test is a choice. You don't need a medical reason, you can choose to do the test in an automatic (or hybrid / electric) car if you want to. But almost nobody does that, because you are indeed not allowed to drive a manual car after doing the test in an automatic.