From the BBC


I was one of a tiny minority who took at automatic test way back in about 1972 ... followed by a motor bike test a couple of years later, and a manual test in 1978.  All three passed; the first two in Sevenoaks and the last in Luton.  These were all before the days of separate theory tests - a few questions on the Highway Code and and about driving as the candidate sat in the car with the examiner.

 
Took my motorcycle test in a heavy downpour. From the look on the examiner's face as he donned his large Mac, I was sure I had failed before even leaving the testing centre! I passed - and then promptly fell off my bike for the first time on the way home.

My son took his test in a manual car and passed first time. He now drives an automatic.  As he pointed out to me, once electric cars dominate the market, every car will be an automatic.

 
That's the point made in the BBC article

 
We converted to automatic when we bought a CVT Yaris a couple of years ago. I would not now go back to the manual Yaris we had for 10 years. There is much better control, especially at low speeds. Speed adjustment is much easier and the knowledge that you are unlikely to stall when following people uphill on narrow lanes.

It is some change, when I passed my test 60+ years ago our car only had synchromesh on 3rd to 4th and you had to double de-clutch going down the gears. Either that or slow down much more to get them to mesh without too much of a crunch!

 

I remember double de-clutching on crash gear boxes of army lorries. Became a habit that I ended up doing on what ever I drove. Useful if you wanted to change from high to low ratio on the move in a Series II/III Land-Rover.

 
Just looked up all the cars for sale on auto-trader for current year 2025 which is a sample size of 49,840

Turns out  85.5% are auto, just 14.5% are manual

Rather suggests manual cars are a dying breed.

Having lived in London Suburbs until 5 years ago, we have had autos since 2001, 24 years ago.   Nowadays my car has auto lights, auto wipers, auto climate control etc, so why would anyone select all these automatic features then specify a manual gearbox.  Illogical (as Sock would say)

 
Is that some Vulcan footwear? 

 
I still prefer manuals especially if poor weather such as snow

 
The Yaris can be set into manual mode if needed and then use the select lever to shift up or down one ratio at a time

 
...which is a neat trick for a CVT

 
I took one driving test, in the early 1980s, on manual cars. Passed.

That has covered me for all of my driving since then - cars (manual and automatic) in the UK and overseas, provisional motor cycle, and grocery delivery vans.


Before I retired, I drove Mercedes Sprinter delivery vans - which were all manual. If there was snow, the fleet was grounded, for safety concerns. I remember one occasion, when I had offered to make the very last delivery of that evening to a remote customer, before the snow really arrived. I pulled out of a junction onto the A38 at the top of Redhill (very near Bristol Airport, which had already closed due to the weather) at walking speed - and the van slid sideways on the compacted snow and ice.

No problem: there was no other traffic - they couldn't get up Redhill in those conditions.  I was just laughing to myself in the cab that I'd managed to get a Mercedes Sprinter van to go sideways. 

 

I am tempted to say that ads in auto-trader do not accurately represent the nationwide split between manual and automatic transmissions.

Motoringresearch.com states (14 March 2025) that auto cars have risen by 118% in a decade...............and.......... "1 in 3 cars on UK roads is now an automatic", OR........ to put it another way 2 in 3 are manuals = 66% (my highlighting). I believe these figures are from Insurance companies.  This aligns nicely with the original quote of 25% of tests being for autos.

To paraphrase Mark Twain..........."reports of manual death have been greatly exaggerated"

I have all those wonderful "auto" gizmos on my car - but I got a manual gearbox. It was cheaper and I get a lot more miles per gallon...................and I like it !