Due to demand and availability, it should come as no surprise that automatic car rentals can often be more expensive than their manual counterparts. This is another great reason to make your car rental booking early in your trip planning process.

In 2026, the price disparity between manual and automatic rentals in Europe remains significant, often costing 40% to 100% more for an automatic. Historically, European drivers overwhelmingly preferred manual transmissions because they were cheaper to manufacture, more fuel-efficient on older engine designs, and easier to maintain. Consequently, rental fleets were primarily manual. While the shift toward Electric Vehicles (EVs) and hybrids—which are natively automatic—is changing the landscape, the existing inventory of internal combustion cars in rental lots is still heavily manual. Because demand from North American and Australian tourists for automatics is extremely high but the supply is limited, rental agencies apply "premium" pricing. Additionally, automatic cars in Europe are often categorized as higher-trim or luxury models, which carry higher insurance premiums and higher base purchase costs for the rental agency, all of which are passed on to the consumer.