When I towed with my Avalanche I just the "Tow/haul" switch. It still allowed me to use all four gears too.

The newer transmissions and newer computers are a lot better than they used to be for towing.

I understood 90% of passenger cars sold in the USA were automatics, never seen a stick rental car in 18 years of visiting your great country.
Over here the ratio is reversed, nearly all small cars are stick, however high end cars are nearly all automatic.
Seems strange to me, we dont have the expanses of open road where stick would be best, we do have overcrowded roads with constant holdups even on our main roads and congested town traffic where automatic would suit better.

I would choose automatic every time, I want my car to do the chores!.

Roger.

The US is in the opposite when it comes to passenger vehicle transmissions. Every country I've been to has been mainly stick shifts with few autos. Mainly in the high end cars like what was already stated.

Almost all vans, busses, pickup trucks (if they can be called that), and large trucks here are all manuals. Now I know our big rigs in the US are 90% manuals too, but ours are those 18 geared things. Over here it'* a 6 speed with the first 2 really low. We should adopt that I think.

To get a British drivers licence you have to take a test, no drivers ed over here, you pay for driving lessons and a fee for taking the test.
If you take your test in an automatic you only get a licence to drive automatics, if you want to drive stick you have to pass your test in a stick car. Most people learn stick from the outset, as I said earlier stick is almost universal here.
Again contrary to the USA an increasing number of big trucks are fitted with automatic, not just specialty trucks such as garbage collection trucks or buses but main road haulers too.

Roger.