@bscar–You are correct about the age to rent a car. My son was in college, but was 21. He loaned the car the car that was in my name to a family in the church he attended so that this family could take their daughter back to her college. The car was hit head-on and was totaled. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. However, the insurance company balked at renting him a car. The insurance company said that a car couldn’t be rented to anyone under 25. I argued with them that I paid a higher insurance premium to insure my son and that they could do the same. Ultimately, the insurance company gave in and my son was provided with a rental car. It wasn’t much of a car–I think it was a Dodge Shadow that probably came from Rent-A-Wreck–but the insurance did provide the rental.
I did rent a manual shift car back in 1980 when my wife and I went from our town in the midwest to Flagstaff, AZ by rail. I rented the cheapest car I could find to drive up to Grand Canyon and to drive into the Painted Desert. The car was a Chevrolet Vega station wagon and had a manual shift. Since that time, my wife has arranged for the rental cars.