Hi Kate If you can drive a standard stick-shift car you will definitely have far more choice when you go to buy. They are by far the most available. Having said that I bought an automatic last year, not necessarily because I WAs looking for one, but mostly because it WAs the right car/price. I think you will find that both cars and child car seats are generally smaller in Europe than in the US. We brought our US-bought car seats to Ireland, and people do tend to comment on how much bigger they are. Actually the car we bought WAs as a result of needing a l ...