Car & Bike Automatic transmission cars available in the Indian market?

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What makes the AT substantially expensive than MT same models comparing. Is it because AT is not manufactured in India and all is imported ?
Also is there higher maintenance of AT cars ?
 
The AT gearbox requires additional components as compared to a manual gearbox. These include mechanism to detect when a gear change is required and also mechanism to change the gear automatically. This is just a basic explanation. There is also a different type of transmission which does not have conventional gears. It is called a CVT(continuously variable transmission), This CVT comes under the category of an Automatic as the driver does not have to change gears manually. Nissan Micra has a CVT variant.
Premium is also charged in case of AT as it provides a more comfortable driving experience. A lot of other factors are surely involved but I am unaware of those.

In case of maintenance, an Automatic will be a little costlier than a Manual, but the only difference is the gearbox. I guess there won't be a difference in case of a regular maintenance check, oil topups etc. In case of fuel consumption, the Manual variant will give better average in the hands of an experienced driver although this difference is reducing as time goes by.
 
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I think the mileage derived from both the MT would be more that then AT if the same driver drives both the variants. This is just generic numbers.
Also some car manufacturers say we can give you tips on how to drive smartly and increase your car's mileage, but again that kind of driving is not applicable in real world situations.
If you are going for an AT you are anyway paying more for it when you can get the same car bur MT for lesser. My advice would be do not think about the FE.

Apart from that... except the gearbox being different and some bells and whistles, I don't think any major mechanical part would be different. So servicing and schedule should be same as an MT.
 
The gear box of the dolphin city AT is 1.3L. Ours had got worn and needed replacement. Had to sell off the car. Im sure the new one probably costs somewhere around the same.
Proper maintenance of the AT gearbox as compared to manual costs more, apart from that all service costs and charges are the same.
 
Bumping the thread. Although buying a car is not on cards at the moment still have some queries about used automatic transmission cars.
I feel that if and when I do buy a car it will in all probability be automatic only.

Now the small hatchbacks in automatic version too come out expensive but if I check Olx and such I sometimes see good prices for used sedan automatics like Honda city and all.

So assuming I were to buy a used automatic only then how to go about it ?

Is it better to go with those pre owned car showrooms or Olx and all is also good ?

PS: I have very limited information about automobiles l.
 
raksrules said:
Bumping the thread. Although buying a car is not on cards at the moment still have some queries about used automatic transmission cars.
I feel that if and when I do buy a car it will in all probability be automatic only.

Now the small hatchbacks in automatic version too come out expensive but if I check Olx and such I sometimes see good prices for used sedan automatics like Honda city and all.

So assuming I were to buy a used automatic only then how to go about it ?

Is it better to go with those pre owned car showrooms or Olx and all is also good ?

PS: I have very limited information about automobiles l.
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One of my friends was visiting from Canada and he works with Ford. He advised me not to go for an Automatic car for driving conditions like India. He told me that in such bumper to bumper traffic the transmission gets very hot and it will fail more quickly than a normal transmission. Though he also went on to say that such traffic conditions ain't too good for manual transmission either.
Earlier even I thought that automatic cars would have been built considering such conditions in mind but he told me otherwise and told me to stay away from automatics in India.
 
raks , i been driving my wifee's automatic Astar ,cheaper than the rest , i get a mileage of 15-16 ....whats your budget?
 
kippu said:
raks , i been driving my wifee's automatic Astar ,cheaper than the rest , i get a mileage of 15-16 ....whats your budget?
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As i mentioned, i have no budget as of now but I MAY buy in next 2 years probably. There are few IFs before i make that decision. But i want to get some information beforehand as i will most probably get only automatic.
But any one had to ask me, i would want to go for a used car before buying a brand new because i have never driven on Indian roads (bike riding does not count). So first would want to spend less and gain some experience and then only get a new car.
 
rdst_1 said:
One of my friends was visiting from Canada and he works with Ford. He advised me not to go for an Automatic car for driving conditions like India. He told me that in such bumper to bumper traffic the transmission gets very hot and it will fail more quickly than a normal transmission. Though he also went on to say that such traffic conditions ain't too good for manual transmission either.
Earlier even I thought that automatic cars would have been built considering such conditions in mind but he told me otherwise and told me to stay away from automatics in India.
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If Traffic conditions are not good for manual either, how do Maruti cars last 15-20 years? My dad's maruti 800 was bought in 1994 and it is still the car we use. I am also interested in an automatic car and this news is a disappointment. Let me do some more research on this :P
 
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^^ old gen cars were totally mechanical... you keep on replacing the parts and they keep on running. you still can fabricate the parts if they are out of production. so, your maruti can run for another 15~20 years.

new gen cars rely on a lot of electronics and they keep going kaput every now and then (in rains, excessive heat etc). after a while, you just can't fix such cars 100% to factory condition.

there are several kinds of automatics and the best kind for indian cities is a CVT.
 
gauravH said:
^^ old gen cars were totally mechanical... you keep on replacing the parts and they keep on running. you still can fabricate the parts if they are out of production. so, your maruti can run for another 15~20 years.

new gen cars rely on a lot of electronics and they keep going kaput every now and then (in rains, excessive heat etc). after a while, you just can't fix such cars 100% to factory condition.

there are several kinds of automatics and the best kind for indian cities is a CVT.
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Best in terms of ?
 
You guys should not forget about Tiptronic/Paddle Sifters which are very fun , though not fully manual but gives a sense of control over fully automatic. Its like best of both worlds? isn't it?

and yeah it can't be done on CVT.
 
there are numerous reasons in the favour of CVT (for bad indian traffic). i'd like to highlight only one: limitless gears (sort of). and then there are other types of automatic transmissions suitable for racing, smooth roads, hilly areas etc.
srkmish said:
I am also interested in an automatic car and this news is a disappointment. Let me do some more research on this :p
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don't forget to publish your thesis here. :p

max_demon said:
You guys should not forget about Tiptronic/Paddle Sifters which are very fun , though not fully manual but gives a sense of control over fully automatic.
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have you tried them? how was your experience?
 
I have tried Tiptronic on Polo TSI (With DSG) while TD'ing for my vento tsi purchase. I found that it is more of a semi automatic, than manual transmission, we can hold the gears longer, but if we revv high it will still up shift even if we don't give it the command. similar in case of downshift if it detects loss in power. but for most of the time it does a good job. there is a lag between the command and the actual gear change.

you can also see the current gear on the MID, just in case you are confused which gear you are on ;)
 
i have driven lots of cars with such system (even the one mounted on regular gear shifter). in my opinion, it is never a manual transmission. i haven't read any literature on them, so i am not sure of my knowledge. in my experience, those shifters provide you an advantage while overtaking. if you try to use it for anything else, you'll get jerks (just like a kid learning to drive his/her first manual car).
 
max_demon said:
You guys should not forget about Tiptronic/Paddle Sifters which are very fun , though not fully manual but gives a sense of control over fully automatic. Its like best of both worlds? isn't it?

and yeah it can't be done on CVT.
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There are transmissions that offer CVT + paddle shifters. They treat different bands of the roller position as a "gear".

gauravH said:
i have driven lots of cars with such system (even the one mounted on regular gear shifter). in my opinion, it is never a manual transmission. i haven't read any literature on them, so i am not sure of my knowledge. in my experience, those shifters provide you an advantage while overtaking. if you try to use it for anything else, you'll get jerks (just like a kid learning to drive his/her first manual car).
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Have you tried any good dual-clutch automatic transmissions? They are a lot more efficient and quicker to shift than what a good driver can get out of a manual transmission. I personally prefer manual transmissions but the higher end automatic transmissions are very good now and don't jerk.
 
yes, dual-clutches are a few milliseconds quicker :p than other types of automatic systems employed in high-end sports cars. why are you even comparing "a good driver on manual" with something that shifts the gear automatically (probably after calculating thousands of parameters electronically)?

some manuals may save fuel and give drivers more control over the car but it's tiresome for driving a manual in indian city traffic... hence the discussion of affordable automatics.

i love automatics when i am abroad and manuals while in india. i find the usual (don't know the right term) automatics sluggish for indian road conditions... and i can't afford dual-clutches or DSGs :D
 
You said 'it is never a manual transmission'. That's where I wanted to point out that performance is not a reason to pick manual over automatics nowadays.
 
rdst_1 said:
One of my friends was visiting from Canada and he works with Ford. He advised me not to go for an Automatic car for driving conditions like India. He told me that in such bumper to bumper traffic the transmission gets very hot and it will fail more quickly than a normal transmission. Though he also went on to say that such traffic conditions ain't too good for manual transmission either.
Earlier even I thought that automatic cars would have been built considering such conditions in mind but he told me otherwise and told me to stay away from automatics in India.
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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.
 
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