Automatic or manual: what to check before renting a car abroad

The shift has been fast in France, a useful reference point for many self-drive travellers: automatic transmissions made up only 8% of new cars sold in 2004, rising to 25% by 2016, and passing 54% since the start of 2025, according to data from the Plateforme Automobile (PFA) reported by Direct Assurance and Caradisiac. An entire generation of drivers now gets a licence and drives daily without ever operating a clutch.

That shift at home creates a mismatch abroad. Many self-drive destinations popular for an independent road trip — much of Europe, southern Africa, a large part of South America — still rent out mostly manual vehicles by default, with automatic remaining an option to request and often to pay extra for. Other destinations have gone the opposite way for years, to the point that a manual gearbox is nearly impossible to find at a rental counter.

Before booking, it helps to know which category a destination falls into: it shapes availability, price, and how far ahead you need to book to get the transmission you want.

The price gap between manual and automatic depends heavily on the vehicle category and destination, and it can be surprising. In Iceland, Hertz advertises an average surcharge of around 5% for an automatic over the equivalent manual — but on family models like the Dacia Jogger, the gap widens to roughly 49%, and on a 4x4 like the Suzuki Jimny it can reach 59%, according to local rental comparisons. On small entry-level city cars, by contrast, many models are only offered as automatics, with no surcharge at all.

In South Africa, the logic runs the other way: manual remains the cheapest baseline on the market, and automatic is a genuine premium sought out mainly by international visitors uncomfortable with a clutch. Across continental Europe, a 20–60% gap is typical depending on the vehicle category and how far ahead you book — and availability can simply run out if the request comes too late, especially in high season.

For a self-drive 4x4 trip in Namibia or Botswana, entry- and mid-range models are still often manual, while automatic versions are becoming standard mainly on newer 4x4s and better-equipped models — particularly those rented with a rooftop tent. Tourist demand for automatics regularly outstrips supply during peak periods, which makes early booking especially worthwhile for this type of vehicle, as detailed in our comparison of 4x4 rental companies in Namibia.

On gravel and sand tracks, the choice isn't only about comfort: a well-used automatic (manual or sequential mode on descents, a low gear when crossing sand) reduces the mental load of managing the vehicle at moments when attention needs to stay on the track itself, braking distances on gravel, and the state of the surface.

Transmission type isn't only a comfort question — it directly affects safety, especially when it compounds with other unfamiliar factors behind the wheel. A study by Selander, Bolin and Falkmer, published in 2012 in the journal Gerontology, compared the driving of 31 older drivers (average age 75) and 32 younger drivers on the same route, once in a manual car and once in an automatic. The result: older drivers made significantly fewer errors in the automatic, particularly around pedal handling, matching speed to the situation, and staying within speed limits — managing the gearstick and clutch took up attention that was then no longer available for the road.

Another study, by Richard Tay and Jaisung Choi and published in 2017 in the Journal of Advanced Transportation, compared the factors contributing to crashes involving rental cars versus personal vehicles. Its conclusion: risky driving behaviours — inattention, misjudging a situation — were significantly more common behind the wheel of a rental car, precisely because the driver is discovering both the vehicle and its environment at once (study: doi.org/10.1155/2017/8757891). Adding an unfamiliar manual gearbox to an unfamiliar vehicle, on unfamiliar roads, sometimes driving on the left, stacks several sources of mental load at once — a stack that an automatic, when available, can shave down by one layer.

The main risk isn't paying more for an automatic — it's arriving to find the transmission you didn't want, because the search filter wasn't applied, because the booked vehicle category only comes in manual, or because the automatic fleet had already sold out by pickup day. Rental agencies, even large international brands, generally guarantee the vehicle category (city car, SUV, 4x4) but not always the exact model or transmission type — a distinction that often sits in the fine print of the terms and conditions.

In some destinations, or on some vehicle categories, manual remains the only realistic choice — notably on entry-level 4x4s across southern Africa. A useful reminder before departure: driving a manual car for a few kilometres before the trip, even just once, reactivates reflexes that come back faster than most drivers who haven't practised in years expect. The first fuel stop and the first few kilometres, away from a city or a busy airport, are the best moment to re-find that muscle memory before facing heavy traffic or a technical track.