Automobile Transmission

The transmission system in a car helps in transmitting mechanical power from the engine to the wheels. Though quite a few types of transmission devices are available all over the world we would be discussing the manual transmission in details as it is the widely used transmission system in India. Automatic transmission will be briefly touched upon as they are slowly making their presence felt in the country.

Manual Transmission

The type of manual transmission which is available in the Indian market is called the Sequential Manual transmission..

This type of transmission doesn’t allow the driver to select any gear at a given point of time. Such a technology will be a boon for the Indian road conditions as cars need sudden acceleration and stopping.

In the type of manual transmission which is available in the country one has to move to the higher gear if one wants to pick up speed and has to do the reverse if he or she needs to slow down.

They come with a driver operated clutch which needs to be depressed while operating the gear stick. The manual transmissions which are available to the country come with four to five gears with one reverse gear. These manual transmissions are referred by their number of forward gears they have i.e. if a car has 5 forward gears they could be referred as 5 speed Manual transmissions.

Advantages of Manual Transmission

  • Manual Transmission offers a better fuel economy advantage over their automatic counterparts.
  • It is generally easy to build a robust manual transmission than a strong manual transmission.
  • Manual transmissions are cheaper than automatic transmissions and require less maintenance than the automatic one
  • A person driving a car with manual transmission has direct control over the car than a person who is driving the car with automatic transmissions.
  • A car with manual transmission provides an extra throttle while overtaking since the driver can move to lower gear for more power. Automatic transmission on the other hand has a delayed reaction time.
  • A car fitted with manual transmission requires a greater degree of control and involvement from the driver than a car with automatic transmissions. Such a system is just right for a place like India where there is a danger lurking everywhere.

Like two sides o a coin there are a few disadvantages associated with cars that use manual transmissions, they are as follows

  • Driving a car with manual transmission requires greater degree of skill and application, an inexperienced driver could have his hands full while driving as he has to multi task and concentrate on a lot of things simultaneously.
  • While climbing up a hill, a car with automatic transmission always scores over the one with manual.
  • In a manual transmission smooth and effective shifting of gears can only be guaranteed by an experienced driver.
  • A car with manual transmission can't be disabled friendly as it requires a greater degree of control and maneuvering.

Automatic Transmission

Ironically automatic transmission came into the country through two-wheelers rather than their bigger cousin cars. Kinetic Hondathe flagship model from the stable of Kinetic Motors had a decent run with automatic transmission. In this section we will offer you a brief explanation of the automatic transmission system.

The driver doesn't have to change gear ratios manually as gear ratios in the gear box change automatically thus relieving the driver from the added responsibility of changing gears.

However this type of transmission is still to become popular all over the world as they are not as fuel efficient as their manual counterparts.

Though few car models are available in the country with automatic transmission yet the manual transmission is more preferred.