"Standard" transmission in most parts of the world is manual rather than automatic.
I read "Fade out" by Patrick Tilley a few years back which involves aliens playing about with the electrical field of the planet to stop anything stronger than the electrical signals in a living creature working. Computers, radios, electric lights, cars, everything just
stopped. Only older diesel engines were able to continue operating and were started using a sort of preloaded cartridge to turn the engine over (it's been a few years, the details are sketchy).
A good read which I think shows just how primitive things can be when EMP gets nasty.