[ventoman]

Originally Posted by noopster

I'd like to make one point. Average speed over a long trip, mostly on highways, is going to be the same pretty much for a comparable car with MT and AT. The specific question that was poised was, has shifting to an AT *increased* your average speed? Simple answer is no.

I have a manual Swift and an AT Vento, both petrol. Power/torque ratings of the latter are higher, seating position is lower, ride and handling superior and the ergonomics superb. All that keeps me more comfortable and less fatigued in general, so possibly I reach my destination a bit faster and definitely less fatigued...

I'd like to echo Noopster's view on this based on my own experience.
I recently transitioned from Vento TDI (MT) to TSI DSG (AT) and took AT for the first time on highways. The drive was from Bangalore to Coimbatore (350kms @ ~5-6 hours), which was done umpteen times on my old MT as well.
Whilst the average speed remained more or less same, I drove non-stop this time and thus reached Coimbatore quicker, as fresh as cucumber. With the old MT, I would have stopped at least once to stretch myself, especially if I had to switch gears several times on junctions.