BHPians share their transmission choice for a two-car garage

Since beater car is AT, running around congested cities within bumper to bumper traffic is easy. Besides, for the highways, the MT in the main car provides that control and fun to drive factor.

BHPian DCEite recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Many households today prefer to keep atleast two cars in their garage, for the reasons like the need of a secondary "city" only car and the main car for the highway, or a second car for the spouse or home errands/dropping kids to school etc.

Some of the examples that I see in my neighbourhood:

• Honda City Hybrid as main / highway car and Tata Tiago as the Beater/city car.
• Mahindra Scorpio N as the main car and Suzuki Swift as the second car.

and so on.

The idea of this thread is to understand buyer preferences when it comes to the transmission (AT/MT) of the main car vis-a-vis the beater car.

Options:

Main car MT and beater car AT

Advantages: Since beater car is AT, running around congested cities within bumper to bumper traffic is easy. Besides, for the highways, the MT in the main car provides that control and fun to drive factor.

Main car AT and beater car MT

Advantages: Since the main car is AT, long drives are less tiring on the highways and long city rides. Besides, since the beater car is most probably a small car like a Swift/Tiago/WagonR etc., the driving controls (clutch, gearbox) are light and for short city rides AT is not missed much. Infact, some small cars like Swift/Ignis/Baleno can be fun to drive with MT transmission.

Both main and beater cars MT

Advantages: For the hardcore enthusiasts, MT is the way to go, whether its the main car or the secondary car.

Both main and beater cars AT

Advantages: This scenario is not uncommon, but in western world this is the norm. AT all the time, is putting comfort over everything else. Some ATs like DSG/DCTs can be fun to drive as well.

What are your preferences ? Do Vote !

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Am addicted to good ATs & am lucky to own two of the best (ZF-8 and DSG) in my garage. Never going back to MT, unless it's for a very specific purpose (e.g. a Porsche with a 6-speed manual or a vintage car).

ATs only for me and that too, proper ATs (torque converter, dual-clutch, CVT). Strictly no AMTs or halfway-there measures like IMTs.

Here's what BHPian condor had to say on the matter:

A beater would be typically used in city, and I would want a Torque Convertor AT for this.

A regular car which I would use for long distance travel can be a MT.

Here's what BHPian DicKy had to say on the matter:

Conventional wisdom dictates that the highway car be manual and the city car be automatic.

But various variables can be at play. Higher end cars tend to be automatics, while the city car tends to be a beater that has manual transmission. Or the main car would be something like the Innova Crysta diesel or early version of Jeep Compass diesel with only manual and the city/beater car would be an electric. Then there is which car would be chauffered in or self driven, as a good number of temporary drivers are not familiar with automatics.

Here's what BHPian raptor_diwan had to say on the matter:

Definitely AT, for both.

I began to enjoy the drive and appreciate the engine note more with an automatic than when I was using a manual. I found I could relish the drive, whether in the city or on the highway. One notable observation is that automatic transmission has drascitally reduced my stress and road rage in traffic situation. With no need to press the clutch or handle extra work, I'm all in for AT.

Here's what BHPian asit.kulkarni93 had to say on the matter:

I don't mind a MT daily as my commute is relatively less. But given the typical Highway traffic that we have in Maharashtra, I would stick to an AT for now. With ATs, It has to be a non AMT. I would rather driven a MT than an AMT. Not a big fan of CVTs either but a well tuned TC or DCT is the way to go.

Here's what BHPian sunikkat had to say on the matter:

Voted both for AT

There was a time when I couldn’t think anything other than MT and for this reason got Octavia TDI MT in 2016. Currently my main drive (Octavia) is MT and my beater i20 is IVT. I totally love this combo and still believe nothing can beat the fun of driving a MT on open highways.
But voted for AT, simply because if I have to upgrade from Octavia there is just no option of MT. Also as much as fun is MT on highways, I really dread of driving it in Bangalore city.

For beater / city car it’s a no brainer.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.