MASTER OF ALL TRADES

A friend who hasn’t driven a manual in over a decade accompanies us on a drive in the Hyundai Venue Turbo iMT

- SUVRAT KOTHARI

PURISTS LOVE MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS. The tactile joy that’s derived out of working the clutch and the gearbox, synchronising the motion of your feet and left hand for that perfect heel-toe downshift can be addictive. A good manual transmission treats enthusiasts with just what they want – slick shifts, short throws and the ability to tame the car they’re driving with complete control. But let’s not get carried away with this. You can enjoy manuals only if the driving conditions allow you to. For that, your commute has to be free from traffic or you should frequent the open roads outside of the city. Regular Indian driving conditions are exactly the opposite. They include melted chocolate roads, low-IQ motorists and cities with some of the world’s worst traffic jams. And that means there’s limited scope for drivers to indulge in the joys of a manual gearbox. It’s no small wonder that buyers are now transitioning towards automatics that relieve them from the hassles of operating the clutch and the gear lever in stop-and-go traffic. CVTs and AMTs are some of the affordable automatic transmission options out there but they come with certain drawbacks. CVTs have the elastic band effect that really affects acceleration. AMTs cause head toss and the shifts are lazy.