AMT is Dated & Prone to Breakdown, Says Toyota; Etios Twins Coming With Proper ATs

Ever since its introduction on the Maruti Suzuki Celerio, Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) has become a sought-after technology in the Indian car market. It is a much cheaper option than the proper conventional fully-automatic gearboxes and provides the same fuel efficiency as their manual counterparts.

The technology has caught fancy of not only Maruti but also a lot of other manufacturers. Tata launched Zest AMT on diesel, Maruti capitalized by plonking AMT on their Alto K10, Renault is going to bring it on the XBA and Mahindra has already showcased their Quanto Autoshift. Toyota, on the other hand, has decided not use AMTs in their products.

Mahindra-Quanto-AMT-autoshift-lever

As per a report on Hindustan Times, Toyota does not consider AMTs to be durable enough to be used in cars. N Raja, company’s Director and Senior Vice President says that AMTs have more movable parts, more than in a traditional automatic, and hence greater are the chances of wear and tear.

Toyota believes that AMTs are prone to breakdown and the technology, in itself, is dated. Therefore, they do not have any intentions of introducing AMT boxes in any of their cars.

Toyota Etios Liva 2014

According to an earlier report in November 2014, Raja has confirmed that the company is working on automatic versions of their Etios series of cars which will start hitting the markets within 10 months. Considering this latest report, it gets abundantly clear that Etios twins will come with proper and conventional automatic gearboxes and not AMTs!

Toyotas have always been known for their durability (though at the cost of fun and style), are they correct in pointing a finger at AMTs? Are AMTs really prone to breakdown? Since Celerio and others cars are relatively new at this point, we can not comment much! But this needs to be seen in a longer point of time.

Related: BINGO! Toyota Vios Spied Testing in Bangalore; Will Rival City & Verna

1 thought on “AMT is Dated & Prone to Breakdown, Says Toyota; Etios Twins Coming With Proper ATs”

  1. As per Wikipedia Automatic gearbox is one of the most complex engineering mechanisms. I had a Santro Auto whose gearbox ran dry when the autofluid sump hit a pothole and had a crack. Hyundai dealer in bangalore estimated repair at 90k (2010)..parts to be imported from Korea and would take a month. I didn’t receive insurance support. New gearbox cost as per them was 1.67 lakh…i had bought 2nd hand and finally sold it to the dealer for a loss of 1.3 lakh…just 6 months into buying. The autofluid sump was extending way below the bumper. Service engg said its not designed for Indian road conditions. Hyundai made a fool of its customers. Toyota person is hiding facts. Maruti is offering 10 years/160000km warranty on the Italian kit. If all others are willing to adapt the low cost mechanism why is Toyota person disclosing unsubstantiated claims. A technology is introduced into mass market after testing it rigorously. As an automobile man..let him reveal how many parts make up the conventional automatic gearbox in comparison to the AMT.

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