The Indian car market has traditionally been averse to Automatic (AT) cars due to the higher initial cost and the fact that an AT car is usually less fuel efficient than its Manual Transmission (MT) version. And due to lack of customer interest, manufacturers also have typically avoided providing AT options. Sort of like a chicken-egg syndrome.
If you wanted a small hatchback with AT some years ago, your only option was the Santro-AT and the WagonR-AT. If you go back in time, the Zen used to come in AT and even the humble M800 had an AT version, but this was only for people who are physically challenged.
Apart from the driver & the engine's efficiency, one major reason that determines fuel-efficiency of an AT car is the number of gears that the AT has internally - the more gears you have, the more efficient the car since the engine can move to the optimal gear for the speed/rpm at which the car is operating in. Small cars usually have a 3 or 4 gear setup, while higher segment cars go upto 7 or maybe even more.
Most Marutis till date had a 3-gear setup which found few takers. And since people were anyway buying Marutis in the MT version and being the market leader with 50% market-share, Maruti did not find much of a need to change things. Hyundai however was more pro-active and had a 4-speed AT in the Santro which found quite some takers. Especially women, elders & those returning after a long stay in the US where they are used to AT cars and find it tough to use stick-shift (as they call it in the US). When i10, the successor to the Santro was launched, Hyundai provided an AT version in that car too and currently this is the market favourite.
It was only last August (Aug-15 to be precise) that Maruti woke up from their slumber and launched their A-Star hatchback in AT version. By launching on the Indian independence day, I guess they wanted to suggest a freedom from gears/clutch for Indians. Unlike the M800 / WagonR, this was a proper 4-speed AT - the same car that is exported to Europe, where it is a favourite small car. For those that don't know, A-Star is the latest Alto in Europe. The M800, Zen, Alto, A-Star are all successive versions of the Alto, as it is called in Europe. BTW the Santro is called Atos in Europe.
Around the same time that Maruti launched the A-Star-AT, we had booked an Estilo-MT for my in-laws. However, since we found that my FIL was having trouble using a geared car, we decided to change the booking to the A-Star AT. It did mean increasing the budget, but we reckoned that if it makes life easier, the extra money would be well worth it.
The car had just been launched and there was no TestDrive car available in Kerala. However, Maruti had offered a car for an official drive and review to my car forum www.team-bhp.com and I went ahead with the feedback from the review by ajmat (team-bhpian and forum-moderator) which mentioned that it was a peppy city car. They did not do much detailed Fuel Efficiency (FE) checks, but since the AStar-MT is a very FE car due to its K-series engine, I reckoned that FE of the AT version should be maybe just 1-2 kmpl less. The detailed review can be seen here.
The only other option available in the upto-7 lakhs range was the i10-AT, but this was around Rs.75000 costlier than the A-Star AT. Also, FE is not known to be the strong point of the i10 even in the MT version & I count FE as a major factor while buying cars/bikes. A colleague who moved to Blore had reported getting 8-9kmpl on his i10-AT and I would be damned if I bought a car (a hatchback at that) that had single-digit FE. Moreover, wherever there is an option available, I would prefer a Japanese car. Korean cars are not my favourites.
We got the car on 8-Dec-2010 (the final price after all discounts was Rs4.65 lakhs) & in the 2 months the car has done 1200kms, with most of the driving by my wife. Since both FIL and wife are now good enough to take the car out on their own and are happy that it is AT with no worries about clutch/gears, I think it was money well spent. Sheena now confidently takes the car to work and recently did a 40km round trip on her own.
My FE calculations show that we are getting 14 kmpl in Kerala town driving which is not bad for a new car - it takes a few thousand kms for the engine to settle down and for the FE to stabilise. I am yet to do an FE-check by the full-tank-to-full-tank method - a more reliable way of measuring FE. Need to do this soon. You can see my review of our A-Star AT here.
A month or so after we got our car, another team-bhpian at Bangalore bought the A-Star AT and he did a series of FE checks via the tankful-to-tankful method. The latest update shows 14kmpl in Blore traffic with 25% A/C, which given the traffic in Blore, is a phenomenal FE for an AT car. More so, when compared to the i10-AT. His review can be found here.
However, there are areas where the i10 scores over the A-Star and if those factors matter to you, the i10 would be a better choice. The interiors of the i10 are better than the A-Star. Plus it is more roomier with more space inside - the rear of the A-Star can get a bit claustrophobic. Also while the A-Star is better in city driving, the i10 is a better option for highway driving due to its bigger 1.2 litre engine and higher power. While the A-Star can do 3-digit speeds comfortably on the highway, overtaking would be easier with the i10.
I am not going into looks because it differs from person to person and anyway both cars are not really lookers. For those that rate a car's handling high, the A-Star is the better handler of the two - its squat looks help.
There is a small fly in the ointment though when it comes to the A-Star - availability of the car. When a manufacturer launches a new model, I would expect them to have enough cars to meet demand. But when it comes to the A-Star AT, Maruti seems to be concentrating only on exports, . The MT version is available off the shelf, but the AT version would take anything from 1-3 months, depending on how persistent you are in nudging the dealer and Maruti folks once in a while.
Prem, if you are reading this, I know that you have been looking at buying a small car. Not sure if you already finalised the car, but if not, do give the A-Star-AT a try. I am told the car is available for TD at Popular Velachery, which is close to your place. For your requirements, it would be perfect. And since it is an AT, when you move to a bigger car later, this can be used by your wife as a 2nd car for running errands, dropping the kids at school etc.
