Also I believe they were much less fuel efficient until relatively recently. I drove a quite old, low spec rental automatic a few years ago and it was dismal - and I wouldn't be a petrol head by any means
Barely, unless you're doing 50k miles a year, you'd barely notice. It was most likely an uneconomical car regardless of which transmission was installed.
I meant the quality of the transmission, how reactive it was type thing, was objectively terrible.
It was separate to the statement that automatic cars, historically, were less efficient, or that was the idea then. Now, sure, probably more efficient.
Also I believe they were much less fuel efficient until relatively recently. I drove a quite old, low spec rental automatic a few years ago and it was dismal - and I wouldn't be a petrol head by any means