I'm European. I had to sit on my left foot to keep me from searching for the clutch when I was driving in the US. And here (in the Netherlands) an automatic is more expensive! (I only know old people that have an automatic)
You could have just rented a standard when you were in the US. There are still plenty of them out there. And on the prices, I would guess its a case of the cost of switching things on the assembly line. Easier to just make 100 automatic cars (or standard) even if the price per car is a bit more, because its more expensive to stop the assembly line to change to standard (or automatic).
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