Advantages and Disadvantages of automatic gear transmission over manual gear transmission in vehicles to the customers in India

Advantages and Disadvantages of automatic gear transmission over manual gear transmission in vehicles to the customers in India

India has seen a huge development in the automobile industry in a last few decades. These developments may include India becoming the sixth largest vehicle manufacturer in the world and introduction of automotive giants like Jaguar, Land rover, triumph, Harley-Davidson, Isuzu etc. not only in the Indian markets but the manufacturing domain as well.

One such development has been increase in number of automatic transmission, semi-automatic transmission, CVT (Continuously variable transmission) and DCT (Dual - Clutch Transmission) vehicles. The types of gear transmission in vehicles have their advantages and disadvantages.

People may say that manual transmission vehicles are less expensive in comparison to automatic transmission vehicles but there is reduction of human effort and that’s what a machine is made for and thus it helps a lot on roads in India where the traffic is highly unorganised.
The automatic gear transmissions thus have a good utility in the cumbersome traffic.

 It is often quoted that manually transmitted gear systems generate a good fuel economy. But what one often misses is the driving habits of the person driving the car and condition of traffic. On Indian roads we find amateurs driving cars who accelerate the car with a full throttle and immediately apply breaks generating a lower fuel economy. The fuel economy of the car also goes down by the abrupt gear changes. An automatic transmission somewhat helps in eliminating the loss in fuel economy due to this.

Though the automatic transmission have various advantages over the manual gear transmission in vehicles, it is often advised to learn how to drive on a vehicle with a manual transmission because of the law of licencing in India and various other countries that states that a person who takes the test of driving on a car with automatic gear transmission is allowed to drive such cars only. He/she will not be allowed to drive a manual transmission vehicle while a person who takes the test in a car with automatic gear transmission is allowed to drive both.

A good alternative to both is Dual Clutch transmission which is usually operated in a fully automatic mode, and many also have the ability to allow the driver to manually shift gears. Using these, a person can maintain the fuel economy of the car by using the manual mode when needed and go for automatic mode for a relaxed driving experience.