Here in Brazil, mostof the familyes that don't have or don't want to spend too much money, can find many "semi automatic" models.
They are all made of plastic. Few models have a metal or wooden cabinet and plastic tub.
The functions can vary from a simple "kitchen timer" that shuts it off after some minutes or more advanced controls that include automatic fill (with or withour water level selector), drain pumps or drain valves, and automatic soak and rinse cycles.
They can be with horizontal impeller, vertical impeller or agitator type. the impeller models are very agressive to the clothes, but everybody say no other machine can beat them about cleaning results.
It's not dificult to see families (even richer ones) that have a standard automatic washer and one of those, to wash dirtier clothes or even to save water, washing in the semi automatic saving the soapy water to the next loads and puting the load in the automatic to rinse and spin.
Of course or "Towering inferno" weather helps drying the loads when they are hung squeezed or one could also buy one of the many cheap and reliable brands of spin dryers.
There are many brands in Brazil, but i'm going to talk about Mueller because it's considered one of the best brands and they also have many different models and videos on youtube with english subtitles.
Mueller superpop is the BOL model. It has no drain pump or water inlet solenoid. vertical impeller type. The superpop also had the Superpop Glass version. It's the same machine, but transparent.
http://www.youtube.com/user/muellereletro#p/a/u/1/cRLPxK6NfyQ
