Automatic Car Hire Paphos: 136 of 140 Cars, and Why
Almost every car on this island shifts for itself, and the reason says more about Cyprus than about comfort.
Same as pickup
The value table · Paphos
Every car, side by side.Measured, not sold.
The bars below are drawn to one shared scale, so the gap you see is the gap you pay. Switch the measure to rank the fleet on the day rate or on the full hire.
·
Insurance available on every car · TPL · CDW · SCDW · Full CDW
Automatic at every price the island charges
In most of Europe the second pedal is a surcharge: you like the number, you ask for an automatic, the number moves. In Paphos there is nothing to ask for, because 136 of the 140 cars bookable here already shift for themselves. The table puts the same question to each price band.
| Where it sits | Day rate | What that money buys in Paphos | Gearbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| The floor | 18 to 28 EUR | A small hatchback from the 63 compacts | Automatic |
| Lower quartile | 45 to 52 EUR | A larger compact, or a family car in a quiet week | Automatic |
| The middle | 65 to 76 EUR | Family cars and the 25 SUVs, where most bookings land | Automatic |
| Upper quartile | 95 to 105 EUR | The 28 minivans, the 15 premium cars, the 7 cabriolets | Automatic |
Sampled seven, thirty and sixty days out, so the bands hold in and out of season. On all three, the cheapest car in the listing had two pedals.
The count, and how it spreads across the fleet
Four manual cars in a city of 140 is not a rounding error, it is a decision the market made long before you booked. The boxes below are the whole Paphos fleet, and only one has a clutch in it.
136
cars that shift for you
Out of the 140 bookable here. Not a class and not an upgrade, just what this island rents.
4
manual cars in the whole city
Enough to exist, not enough to plan a holiday around.
63
compact and city cars
The biggest group and the cheapest, automatic down to the last one.
37
family cars
Estates and big hatchbacks for four adults and their luggage.
28
minivans
Six and seven seats, so Coral Bay takes one run instead of two.
25
SUVs and crossovers
A higher seat and the same two pedals. Six have real four-wheel drive.
15
premium cars
The top of the local range, where two pedals surprise nobody.
7
cabriolets
The smallest group in the listing, and the one to book early.
What the second pedal actually solves, by driver
The reason to care about a gearbox here is not comfort, it is hand position. The wheel sits on the right in Paphos, so the lever, if there is one, sits on your left.
You lose nothing by taking the automatic anyway
Shifting with the other hand is learnable in an afternoon. The question is whether that afternoon should begin at the airport with a loaded car and an address to find.
The easiest island in the Mediterranean for you
In Spain, Italy or Greece the gearbox filter halves the list and lifts the price of what is left. Here it barely moves it.
One new thing instead of two
The pedals keep their usual order in a right-hand-drive car, so the clutch is not the problem. The lever is, and it wants attention exactly when the roundabout does.
Two drivers, one habit to unlearn
A second name on the contract only helps if both of you are comfortable in the seat. An automatic levels that, because whoever is less sure keeps both hands on the wheel.
Why an island of 140 cars owns 136 automatics
Cyprus drives on the left, and that one fact shaped the rental fleet long before anyone booked a holiday from a phone. The market grew around British visitors, who arrive knowing which side of the road is theirs, and around everybody else, who arrives certain of the opposite.
An automatic serves both at once. For the driver from Manchester it changes nothing. For the driver from Warsaw or Munich it removes the control that has swapped hands.
The same history sits in the model names. The listing carries a Nissan March beside a Nissan Micra and a Toyota Vitz beside a Toyota Yaris, the same cars in home-market badges. Cars built for the left tend to arrive already shifting for themselves.
The first roundabout is where this stops being theory. You approach with the wheel on your right, give way to the right and travel clockwise, the mirror image of the reflex you flew in with. In an automatic your left hand has nothing else to do.
What changes in the seat
- Your seat
- on the right
- The gear lever
- on your left, if any
- Pedal order
- unchanged
- Roundabouts
- clockwise
- Cars with two pedals
- 136 of 140
The four manuals, and the person who should book one
Four cars in Paphos still have a clutch, and none of them is exotic: small hatchbacks and compacts, Picanto and Fiesta shapes. They sit in the same price territory as their automatic twins rather than below it, which is the detail most visitors get backwards. A manual is not the budget move here.
The case for one is short and real. If you drive a stick daily at home and one of the four suits the trip, take it. The climbs behind Peyia are better company in a car you can hold a gear in.
Everyone else can treat the four as trivia. Filtering them out costs one click, and on this page it has already happened. The grid under the hero is the other 136.
What visitors said about the gearbox
“I picked the cheapest car on the page expecting three pedals and got two, for the same money.”
“I drive a manual daily in Yorkshire and booked the automatic anyway. First roundabout out of the airport, I was glad.”
“Nine days, three drivers, nobody once thought about the gearbox. Parking near the harbour was the hard part.”
The 136 are already filtered for you
The grid at the top of this page opens on the gearbox filter, so what you scrolled past is the part of the Paphos fleet that shifts for itself. Add your dates to narrow it to what a supplier will hand over that week.
Book an automaticQuestions about two pedals in Cyprus
No, and there is nothing extra to tick. Automatics run from the bottom of the market at 18 to 28 EUR a day up into the 95 to 105 EUR band, so the gearbox is not a price tier.
Barely. Four cars out of 140 are manual, so an unfiltered search here is already almost all automatics. The results on this page load with the filter set anyway.
Because the island drives on the left and the market grew around visitors who do the same at home. Cars built for the left usually arrive automatic, and for everyone else it removes the control that has changed hands.
It removes one of the two new things. The pedals keep their usual order in a right-hand-drive car, but the gear lever sits by your left hand and asks for attention at junctions and roundabouts.
Small hatchbacks and compacts, and they are not cheaper than the automatics parked beside them. Book one only if you drive a stick daily at home.