The right can still hang about for the brake and gas pedal. A clutch of carmakers in the country is slowly but steadily pushing the sales of automatic transmissions. Earlier it used to be the domain of small market niches, but with companies such as Honda Siel, SkodaAuto, Hyundai Motor, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz spoiling buyers with an exciting array of models, the sales graph of automatic cars has finally started moving north.

Honda

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI), one of the first car companies to introduce an automatic variant in the “C” segment, is witnessing brisk sales of its automatic transmissions now.

The previous generation City was doing 5% for automatic transmission (AT) but now nearly 14% of the City’s sales come from it.

51% of the Accords sold in the country today are AT variants. This perhaps explains the growing maturity of the Indian car buyer who has perhaps realised that choosing an automatic no longer means big sacrifices in mileage and performance.

Hyundai: Taking a cue from Honda’s City, Korean carmaker Hyundai too launched an automatic version of its “C” segment car, Verna.

Though it might not be a huge shift yet due to the lack of demand for automatic transmissions in the small car segment (automatics are significantly more expensive than manual variants), rising sales in “C” and “D” segments is a positive sign, according to carmakers.

BMW: Bavarian Motor Works (BMW), which posted a 14% jump in sales here, during January-July. Though available in manual transmission (MT) abroad, all BMW cars sold here comes with AT.

Buyers preferred AT. Also, for chauffeur-driven cars, AT reduces the risk of wear and tear of the vehicle in the long run since drivers can’t fool around with the car much.

Mercedes-Benz: German automobile marquee Mercedes-Benz. Currently, the C-Class, which roughly constitutes around 40% of the company’s total sales here, is split between AT and MT in 87% and 13% respectively.

This growth is significant because in the overseas market where majority of sales comprises of ATs, the price benchmark is the AT, while here the price is set on the manual, which makes the AT appear expensive.

Volkswagen: Volkswagen (VW) and SkodaAuto are not finding it difficult to sell the AT variants of its cars here even with a huge price difference between both. The MT Jetta is almost Rs 2 lakh cheaper than the AT variant.

The extra goodies that any AT variant comes with also help. For instance, the Jetta’s AT variant comes with special upholstery, touchscreen stereo et al.

Skoda: Though the Superb is available only in the AT version, sales of AT Laura's have gone up by almost 10% in a very short while. Nearly 20% of Laura’s sales now come from the AT version.

The price difference between manuals and automatics has come down over the years. Also, better technology such as advanced transmissions has also helped to convince customers about the advantage of ATs.