In American, automatics are cheaper simply because they're a hell of a lot easier to find. Last time my mom and I went searching for a car at a nearby used car lot, we found NO manuals at all. Actually, we saw a couple of them, older cars that we never had a desire to buy. In fact, in my life, I've been in two manuals, only one of which was made after 1980.Edi wrote:I wouldn't want to drive an automatic if given a choice. I learned to drive a stick shift, and I'm quite comfortable with them. 75+% of cars here are stick shift, and automatics cost more (with the price already high, the cheapest new cars, the really small ones, start at around €14000, most cars cost €19000+).
Driving tests, well, they are pretty strict about those here. I failed twice, passed on the third time. The driving instructors are really anal about every single small detail during the lessons, and the officials who conduct the tests are even more so. It is more common than not to fail the first time.
Edi
However, I have had experience with them in video games and I do wonder how anyone can confuse the clutch with the brake or gas, since you'd really have to move one leg pretty far over to hit the other.
The one reason I can guess that driver's tests are so easy in this state is that teens are required to take a really high quality driver's ed course before they can get their license. The course is not funded by the system and costs something like $200 to take. I managed to avoid it since I took a course in Missouri (and it was all moot anyway, since I was 18 before I got my license), but even the course in Missouri was pretty tough, the guy did not tolerate mistakes at all.
