The first question would be does the chap need an auto box, because the best auto boxes for easy drive and general reliability (there will always be exceptions) are torque converter, and these tend to get found in Korean and some Japanese vehicles of this type these days and few European.
If an auto isn't required, you could do far worse than check out a Peugeot Partner or its sister Citroen Berlingo, Fiat Doblo, or if size up is required a VW Caddy Max, most if not all of these are available with their own auto boxes now, but none of them will be traditional torque converter autos as far as i know.
They are all commercial van based so will likely be durable vehicles, how they fare for corrosion resistance when they've been modified like this i wouldn't like to say, but it might be worth asking the converter what they do about treating affected panels etc after modification.
You also have the thr thorny question of fuel choice, if petrol is the chosen fuel then that will severly limit choice, Diesel's might require more research as to how suitable they might be for likely use...re potential DPF problems mainly.
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