Except for a small percentage of the population who have coordination problems or find driving extremely stressful, operating a gearbox is not something which extends the length of driver training.
It takes far longer to learn how to navigate traffic situations and maneuvers than to learn how to change gear. Driving standards in the UK are high and a single error when changing lanes or negotiating a junction can result in a test failure.
Hm. Not sure how it could be the case that not learning something takes the same amount of time as learning something. Can you think of any more examples of this? It would be great if I could learn those things; even if never have a use for it, it’s literally free.
In UK, if you pass your test in an automatic then you are restricted to only being able to drive automatic cars. Historically this reduces demand for automatics, and they are more expensive in UK, dealers charge more for an automatic gearbox. Even when renting a car, automatics cost more (probably just to extract more cash from tourists)
> In UK, if you pass your test in an automatic then you are restricted to only being able to drive automatic car
As I know, this rule also works in some other countries, and slowly distributes. I think it's lobbied by insurance companies, because they pay lot of compensations for scratches, happen on parking, when people pass test in an automatic and then have difficulties in slow speed evolution's in manual.
A driving school merely needs to buy the ones that are suitable for their students and can do so from among all the cars. Whether 20M other cars have what is, in your opinion, an unsuitable transmission for driver training doesn't seem limiting.
It takes far longer to learn how to navigate traffic situations and maneuvers than to learn how to change gear. Driving standards in the UK are high and a single error when changing lanes or negotiating a junction can result in a test failure.