How the AA Wants to Replace the Second £62 Test for Automatic Licence Holders

• Pass a driving test in an automatic and the licence covers automatics only, so a manual car needs a second practical test costing £62 on a weekday.
• The AA wants a conversion course of professional lessons and an assessment by an approved instructor, modelled on a German scheme of at least ten 45 minute lessons, to replace that second test.
• The Department for Transport says it has no plans to change driving test rules, which leaves a manual test as the only route for a driver who needs a gear stick.

Pass in an Automatic and the Cheapest Used Cars Stay Out of Reach

Almost three in ten driving tests are now taken in an automatic. In 2025-26 the DVSA recorded 589,483 automatic tests out of 1,998,621 practical tests, a share of 29.5 percent. A decade ago, in 2016-17, the share was 8.2 percent. Every one of those candidates who passes receives a licence that covers automatic cars only. The AA spells out the catch: a driver who wants a manual later, whether for work, a hire car, a family vehicle or a trip abroad, must sit another practical test in a manual.

That second test costs £62 on a weekday and £75 on an evening, weekend or bank holiday, on the official GOV.UK booking service. The fee is only one cost: the driver also needs manual lessons, a booked slot and a place in the queue for the test itself, and King objects to that queue in the quotes below.

The AA wants a conversion course in its place. The Department for Transport has said it has no plans to change driving test rules and that it keeps these decisions under review, so the live question for a learner today is which test to book.

Why an Automatic Licence Costs Young Buyers Choice

The used car market is the pressure point. AA Cars polled 13,631 motorists and found that 51 percent of 18 to 34 year olds expect their next vehicle to be a manual. A separate AA Cars study found that over half of young licence holders have a budget that stretches only to a used car with a gear stick. Used automatics typically sell at a premium to the equivalent manual, and a second hand electric car, which is always an automatic, remains out of reach for many younger buyers.

The new car market points the other way. Of 292 new models from the 30 biggest manufacturers, CarGurus counted 67 with a manual option, against 197 models in 2016. The SMMT, the motor industry trade body, recorded that four out of five new cars registered last year were automatic. Edmund King, president of the AA, does not put all of that down to hybrid and electric sales.

“The technology in cars has got much better,” he says. “Early automatics were really pretty rubbish; they were clunky.”

Mark Born, head of the AA Driving School Academy, describes the trade-off a learner now faces.

“For learners, this is not just about what car they pass in, but what they are licensed to drive afterwards. EVs may make automatic driving feel like the future, but the current licence system can still make it feel like a trade-off.”

Born also warns about the safety side.

“The vehicle may become easier to drive, but creating safe drivers still takes experience. As more learners choose automatic and electric vehicles, the focus must remain on building confident, capable drivers — not just getting people through the test.”

The Test Numbers Behind the Shift

The DVSA figures show a steady climb. Automatic tests made up 13.8 percent of the total in 2020-21, 23.4 percent in 2023-24, 26.1 percent in 2024-25 and 29.5 percent in 2025-26. The AA Driving School analysed the same DVSA data and arrived at 29.4 percent for 2025-26, against around 4 percent in 2007/08. Both round to almost three in ten.

Mark Born, head of the AA Driving School Academy, sets the same shift against 2007/08.

“Automatic learning has become a mainstream part of the learner market. In 2007/08, automatic tests made up around one in 25 car driving tests; in 2025/26, they accounted for almost three in ten.”

He adds that the change reaches the people who teach.

“However, manual tuition remains the majority across the instructor base, so the EV transition for driving schools is not simply a move from petrol to electric — it is also part of a wider shift from manual to automatic.”

Pass rates tell a second story. Automatic candidates passed 44.6 percent of the time in 2025-26, up from 39.8 percent in 2016-17, a gain of 4.8 percentage points. Manual candidates passed 52.3 percent of the time, which leaves automatics 7.7 percentage points behind.

King explains why the older figures looked so different.

“The pass rate for automatic tests used to be far lower,” said King. “Quite often somebody who couldn’t pass a manual test would switch to an automatic, so the results were always skewed.”

Jon Sutcliffe is chief operating officer at RED Driver Training, a large driving school group, and argues that the debate reaches past the test itself.

“The latest government figures are that around 26% of tests are taken in an automatic-transmission vehicle. That’s not people, that’s tests. If you then start to look at the figures in more detail, you ask whether the pass rates are the same for automatic and manual. They’re not: the automatic pass rate is around six percentage points lower.”

His 26 percent is close to the 26.1 percent the DVSA recorded for 2024-25. The 2025-26 gap between the two pass rates is the 7.7 points above.

What the AA Proposes and What Germany Already Does

The AA’s case is that a driver who has passed once has already shown road skills, and that a second full test sends them into a queue to prove gear and clutch skills an instructor can check. King sets out the argument in his own words.

“The way we drive is changing rapidly. More learners are choosing automatics and that trend will only accelerate because all fully electric cars and most hybrids are automatic,”

“But passing in an automatic shouldn’t mean being locked out of driving a manual for life unless you go through the whole test process again.”

“There will still be occasions when drivers need to use a manual – perhaps for work, hiring a car or borrowing a family member’s vehicle.”

“We are not suggesting simply handing automatic licence holders the keys to a manual.”

“They should undertake proper professional tuition – potentially up to ten lessons – followed by a formal assessment by an approved driving instructor to demonstrate they can safely use gears and a clutch.”

“Once they have already passed their driving test and developed good road skills, it seems disproportionate to make them join a queue of several months for another DVSA test purely to demonstrate manual gearbox skills.”

He adds that the AA would protect safety standards and avoid piling more onto the driving-test backlog.

“A properly regulated conversion course would maintain safety standards while bringing the driving licence system into line with a motoring world increasingly dominated by automatic, hybrid and electric cars.”

“It would also avoid adding unnecessary pressure to the driving-test backlog.”

The model is Germany, where the B197 licence has operated from April 2021. A learner takes the practical test in an automatic and then completes at least ten manual lessons of 45 minutes each, which is at least 7.5 hours of tuition, followed by an assessment with an instructor in a manual car. The assessment runs 15 minutes. The ADAC, Germany’s equivalent of the AA, says some of the lessons can be completed on a simulator.

Ulrich Chiellino, head of the transport department at the ADAC, says the scheme has proved popular for a clear reason.

“the practical test is taken in an automatic vehicle yet the licence granted still covers manual-transmission vehicles”

Chiellino says German road safety and driving standards have shown no notable problems under the scheme.

“Young drivers generally face higher risks. Increased driving experience lowers the risk of accidents, regardless of whether a manual or automatic transmission is used,”

“The dual training approach has proven effective,” Chiellino continued. “Comprehensive training on a manual vehicle is usually more cost-effective and pass rates do not differ significantly.”

King wants the AA version to go further than the German one, and says the lesson count should stay flexible.

“We’re proposing a more thorough assessment than the ADAC,” he said. “And from talking to driving instructors, we think the number of lessons could actually depend on the individual. Some might need less than ten and some may need more.”

King believes an approved driving instructor could run the assessment instead of a DVSA examiner. It would test “clutch control, the hill start, smoothness and understanding the gears”.

“It would not be trying to replicate the full driving test,” he said.

James Hosking, managing director of AA Cars, frames the proposal as a budget measure.

“For first-time buyers on tighter budgets, a manual licence keeps both manual and automatic cars in play and gives them more choice when looking for the right car at the right price.”

“The AA’s proposed conversion route recognises how much the market has changed.”

“Drivers would still have to learn clutch control, gear selection and hill starts, and prove they could use them properly, but they would not have to sit another full driving test after already demonstrating that they can drive safely on the road.”

The Objections, and What the Department for Transport Says

Not everyone in the industry accepts the framework. Nicholas Lyes, head of policy at IAM RoadSmart, agrees that an approved driving instructor should run any conversion assessment, and he suggests a scoring scale in place of pass or fail.

“There wouldn’t need to be a theory test, nor would the assessment necessarily be a pass or fail,” he said. “If they’re getting ones and twos, that would suggest they’re okay to drive a manual. If they’re getting threes and fours, that would indicate they need further practice.”

Sutcliffe sees “far more swim lanes to this issue than just tests”. He believes the current system “is archaic and needs an overhaul”, yet he thinks “the AA is trying to define a framework on something that needs a lot more design, thought and industry engagement”.

“It’s not about saying we need five hours of training at this point,” he said. “We need to understand what we’re actually training. Is it the way the vehicle is operated by the driver, or do we simply need to understand the differences in the way the vehicle behaves and what those impacts are on the driver and safe use of the vehicle?”

He says a conversion course could use a “blended learning approach”, combining technology with “practical skills development”. He also points to the variety within automatics themselves.

“Each automatic car is very different,” he explains. “An EV behaves differently from a petrol automatic. For example, if the car has regenerative braking, how is that different to driving a manual car and how does it affect the student driver and then onwards as a newly qualified driver when the real-world driving experience is gained?”

The Department for Transport holds its position for now. A spokesperson says the department has no plans to alter the driving test rules, and a driver who wants a manual has to pass a manual test. The department adds that these decisions stay under review.

Lyes holds that the current system “still serves an important purpose”, though it should stay under review as the vehicle fleet changes. On where that leads, he says:

“the trend is definitely moving towards automatic transmission” and that there will come a point “where effectively there will be equalisation between the automatic and the manual licensing approach”, and at that point “we should be in a position to make changes if they’re required”.

King expects the argument to grow. “Within four years, I think half of our AA and BSM driving school cars will be automatic,” he said.

What to Do Before You Book a Test

For a learner, the choice comes down to the cars they expect to drive. Anyone who wants the widest used car choice, or who might need a hire car, a family vehicle or a work van with a gear stick, gets a licence covering both by passing the test in a manual. Anyone certain of an electric or automatic future can take the automatic test knowing the restriction stays until a manual test is passed.

King says the final bill turns on the route a learner chooses, and counts it in lessons.

“so both could be true. If you learned in an automatic, you might need five fewer lessons than a manual learner. But then you needed a conversion course and you would need at least those five lessons to convert.”

The sums are worth running. A manual learner pays one test fee of £62 on a weekday. An automatic learner who later needs a manual pays two, £124 in total, plus the manual lessons in between. Check the weekday and evening prices on GOV.UK before booking, and read the rules on changing a £62 test before choosing a date.

The second test also joins the queue that King wants conversion students to skip, so read how the wait for a test slot has grown.

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Sources

• GOV.UK: Driving test costs
• The AA: Automatic driving tests hit record high as EV transition reshapes learner market
• Autocar: Calls for automatic drivers to drive manual without second test
• Daily Mail: Should motorists with automatic-only licences be allowed to drive cars with manual gearboxes after a few lessons?

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar