Why Automobile Manufacturers are not keen in introducing models with Automatic Transmission in India?
Automobile Manufacturers including the good old Marutis and Tatas do not show any interest in introducing vehicles with Automatic Gear in India. A few years ago, some models of Maruti Suzuki as well as Hyundai had Automatic Transmission Models, however they have now completely stopped production of AT Models. What could be the reason?
I personally love manual transmission cars. I hate comfort at the cost of control. AT cars tend to move out of precise control and this irritates me. They tend to jump forward the moment you step on the throttle whereas a manual car can be moved inch by inch as desired. The very action of changing gears give me a pleasant feeling. Moreover, a driver is judged by his ability to synchronize clutch, throttle and the stick (gear lever)......lol
Pretty Simple answer to that - barely any demand for automatics.
Reasons why people do not buy automatics in India :
Higher fuel consumption (Big factor)
Reduction is power comparative to manual transmission
Lower engine capacity cars (drove a zen automatic - i cd have run faster ;-)
Diesel automatics will sell faster but not many manufacturers have this option (excluding BMW's and Mercedes)
Dear Freind
I truely support with your comment, keeping in view of market status and sales, maruti stopped producing AT cars, the indian middle class people doesnt prefer for a low mileage car and costlier one. Even though you have Honda City AT version, Hyundai Santro AT version, Mahindra Scorpio AT version.
Only Santro is going to cost you around 4.5 lakhs, remaining all it will cost you above 10 Lakhs, which middle class people doesnt prefer to offer.
Manufacturing units produces keeping in view of sale, where there is no sale what is the use of production.
Here's the reason my friend. Automatic transmissions are really really complicated devices that ease the transmission of engine power to the differential without a separate control for clutch. This device requires periodic maintenance and must operate in clean environments. A faulty or damaged AT can cause the vehicle gear box to explode in motion or other unpredictable behavior. An AT vehicle, notorious for fuel consumption will have a pretty bad fuel efficiency on Indian roads full of pits and bumps. You must be knowing that almost all Indian petrol vehicles have a carburettor to mix air with petrol before it is sprayed into the combustion chamber. The vehicles found elsewhere in the world have "fuel injection" that does away with the need of a carburettor. Fuel Infection system is another reason for high fuel consumption. Now you may have an idea why these type of vehicles are not promoted in India.
mechanics....