Learners Looking for Auto Tests, as Manual Gearchange Becomes a Relic

This research is interesting, although google searches don’t always translate into actual buying decisions of course;

Over the past 12 months, Google Trends has reported searches for ‘automatic driving lessons’ skyrocketing by80 percent, with a 120 percent increase in searches for ‘cheap automatic cars’ spanning the same period. Research has also revealed a whopping 270 percent increase in driving tests taken in automatic cars over the last decade!

Traditionally, automatic vehicles have been less popular, but new figures collated by award-winning temporary car and van insurers GoShorty show these vehicles now account for over half of all new vehicle sales in the UK. 2020 was the first time in the UK that automatic car sales were over half (54 percent) of all car sales in the UK, a jump up from 25 percent in 2010.

Andy Moody, Founder and Managing Director of GoShorty said:

“Typically, learning in an automatic car is regarded to be easier than learning to drive in a manual car as learners don’t have to worry about clutch control – and certainly won’t have to contend with stalling on hill starts, which may alleviate anxiety for some driving beginners. 

As time goes on, we can see UK learners are embracing automatic cars more. In 2007, only 70,429 tests were taken in automatic vehicles, fast forward to 2022/2023 and there were 324,064 tests taken in automatics, a 360 percent increase over 15 years.

We have also learnt that despite a slightly lower pass rate for automatic tests, demand for driving lessons in automatic cars has risen by 89 percent from 2019 to 2023. And, our own data supports this, with over a third (35 percent) of all of GoShorty’s temporary learner policies purchased for automatic cars in 2024.