@VictorMortimer beg to differ. Looking at advertised figures, automatic transmissions on pure combustion engines (hybrids and electrics obviously are in separate category) may seem better, but in the real world, they still under-perform. The German website Spritmonitor.de enables people to log actual fuel purchased vs distance driven and gives an independent counterpoint to advertised figures. I took the top 3 selling combustion-fueled cars of 2023 in Europe (can't comment on other parts of the world as people there don't post on Spritmonitor), the Dacia Sandero, Volkswagen T-Roc and Peugeot 208, and selected petrol (i.e. not diesel or hybrid) drive chains and cars built since 2019, so last five years. In all three cases, people with automatic transmissions reported 8-11% higher consumption than people with the same car but manual transmission. It's not just one technology - the Sandero uses CVT, the T-Roc a DSG dual-clutch and the 208 an 8-gear torque converter. I also looked up my own car (Citroen C4 Grand Picasso) and saw the same 10% difference, I'm sure there will be exceptions and possibly the situation with relatively large low-compression engines in US will be different to the smaller high-compression ones common in EU. However based on these numbers, with the most popular cars in this part of the world, the automatic option is still less economical.
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@VictorMortimer beg to differ. Looking at advertised figures, automatic transmissions on pure combustion engines (hybrids and electrics obviously are in separate category) may seem better, but in the real world, they still under-perform. The German website Spritmonitor.de enables people to log actual fuel purchased vs distance driven and gives an independent counterpoint to advertised figures. I took the top 3 selling combustion-fueled cars of 2023 in Europe (can't comment on other parts of the world as people there don't post on Spritmonitor), the Dacia Sandero, Volkswagen T-Roc and Peugeot 208, and selected petrol (i.e. not diesel or hybrid) drive chains and cars built since 2019, so last five years. In all three cases, people with automatic transmissions reported 8-11% higher consumption than people with the same car but manual transmission. It's not just one technology - the Sandero uses CVT, the T-Roc a DSG dual-clutch and the 208 an 8-gear torque converter. I also looked up my own car (Citroen C4 Grand Picasso) and saw the same 10% difference, I'm sure there will be exceptions and possibly the situation with relatively large low-compression engines in US will be different to the smaller high-compression ones common in EU. However based on these numbers, with the most popular cars in this part of the world, the automatic option is still less economical.