I think its cultural. Automatic cars were expensive, only posh audis, Mercs and top end "british" cars had them, all the way up till the mid 2000s. they still

I think its cultural. Automatic cars were expensive, only posh audis, Mercs and top end "british" cars had them, all the way up till the mid 2000s. they still feel expensive to buy (even though electric cars are all autos now) and there is a fear that they are unreliable and expensive to fix (not sure if that's still the case) Here in the UK if you only plan to use automatic, you can take an automatic driving license, but you can't drive manuals. So its a bit pointless really. Although one of my mates did it. Unless I'm going to do track driving, I don't really want a manual (actually if its track I'd rather semi auto) However, when driving automatic car, I still get the panic "ARGHH CLUTCH OTHERWISE YOU'LL STALL" reflex when I am coming to a halt.