Hyundai’s latest gearbox is quite different but will buyers warm up to it?
A few years ago, Maruti had invited automotive journalists to the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur to experience something completely new in the small car space. Well, ostensibly, the car was the new Maruti-Suzuki Celerio. The new was the fact that the car featured an ‘Automated Manual Transmission’ or AMT gearbox. While AMT was not a new technology, by bringing it into compact hatchbacks, Maruti had once again transformed the market and made automatics, in a manner of speaking, affordable. AMTs are not really ‘automatic’ gearboxes. After its clutch pedal has been removed, the headache of always moving your left foot in urban traffic conditions still remains.
As a few years went by, AMTs really began to feel a bit sluggish, particularly as engine power outputs went up. More often than not, you found yourself in a power band that felt totally inappropriate for the conditions on some cars. Not all, to be fair, but the fact was that somewhere down there as an automotive writer, you knew that AMT gearboxes were a cost compromise. They certainly didn’t allow for any enthusiastic driving. Although they could be deadly efficient once you mastered the throttle pedal. This was an old technology and while it had its purpose in popularising automatic gearboxes among Indians, carmakers could do a bit better. Truth be told, several of them have done a lot better. There have been considerable efforts in making CVT gearboxes and regular torque converter gearboxes much more affordable. Lately, dual-clutch gearboxes are also coming down the value chain with Hyundai-Kia making it an option on their top-end Venue and on the forthcoming Sonet.
However, both these cars will have something totally fascinating as an option, the ‘Intelligent Manual Transmission’ — a gearbox that the manufacturers claim will give you the thrill of changing gears while removing the clutch. Hyundai was first off the mark and celebrated the first anniversary of last year’s ICOTY winning Venue by launching the IMT version of that car.
There are a lot of sensors connected to a lot of software code that allow the driver to do this, but my first impressions of the car were very weird. As accustomed as I have become to driving automatic cars over the past few years, this felt like something had gone wrong to my poor brain. No clutch, so don’t change gears it went and then you hear an alarm going off instructing you to change gears, wait, what? As the saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, this was a new trick on the car, and it took me some time to get adjusted. I’m saying this after years of quite easily jumping from one car to the next without any problems, going from a 50 horsepower hatchback to a 500+ horsepower supercar, from a limousine longer than some boats to the Tata Nano. Been there, done that, but never done this.
It took me a bit of time, but possibly this dog isn’t ready for the pasture yet. Once I got the hang of it, the IMT was actually quite a bit of fun. Sure, it isn’t quite as exhilarating as a manual is on the Venue turbo-petrol. The gear changes do feel a bit notchy at times, but only a couple of hours with the car and one can get used to this new feeling. If you do buy this car, I’m pretty sure you will also go through a learning curve that will require a few days. That said, what did concern me was — once used to such a car, how would a driver get back to a regular manual? I don’t have an answer! But the way the market is evolving, manuals are increasingly a thing of the past. This is just a step to making them extinct.
