Hacker News Reader

At least in Europe there have been cases where automatic transmission costs an extra 20% in the price of the car.

For several people this is an important decision.

So some people don't "prefer" manual. It just made sense at the time they bought the car.

Yes. I fully get that, living in Europe myself (Isn't 20% a bit too much by the way?)

The idea is that automatic transmission becomes part of a more luxurious packaged upgrade including other things. I think it was that way around two decades ago, now i'm not so sure.

My own personal example (back in 2018)

Hyundai Kona (the middle package) 22k euros with manual

Hyundai Kona (the middle package) 27k euros with automatic

Main point was that you could not get just automatic transmission on its own. You also had to get the 4WD drive version at the same time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com