rdst_1
Juggernaut
No disrespect but your friend is over-reacting. I have a 3 year old i10 AT and a 12 year old Accord AT in Mumbai. Bumper to Bumper traffic of course.These cars have a traditional 'torque converter' automatic. Your friend is right about the gearboxes heating up since our conditions are severe. The key is to keep changing the Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) every third service or so (at least once every 15,000-20,000 km). It would cost around Rs.1200 or more. All of Maruti, Hyundai, Honda automatics are of this type. Incidentally, I get 8-11 Km in i10 and 7.5-10 km in Accord in Mumbai's traffic - surprisingly similar which leads me to believe i10's transmission isn't efficient.
While the newer DSG gearboxes in Volkswagen/Skoda are much more responsive and efficient, there have been plenty of horror stories on transmission failures. Caveot emptor.
The CVT, while being more efficient than torque converter automatics, is a bit like Kinetic Honda. Lots of noise and acceleration follows. However, newer gen ones in the Corolla are much better.
What he was saying was that, contrary to popular belief that me and many other 'car noobs' believe in, manual transmission is better for the traffic conditions of India.