It’s not an automatic. Not in the traditional sense, at least. Which is why Maruti decided to call the technology'Auto Gear Shift'. But since it is decent and warranted a proper platform, they have put together an all-new car, christened'Celerio'. It means'celestial river', or so we came to know when a fellow journalist inquired the source of the unique name. No connection, but post the initial skepticism, it is an easy name to get used to.
Pretty much like the car.
Coming to the technology part of it, automatic gearboxes have traditionally known to be less fuel-efficient than their manual siblings. Which single-handedly has kept many Indians away from what would be an automatic choice for our troubled traffic conditions. Traditionally, they have also been expensive to build and maintain, which kind of hammered the final nail into the coffin. So, to get away from convention, Maruti engineers tried something unconventional, yet, simple. So, what the Celerio gets is an Auto Gear Shift( AGS), which is inherently a five-speed manual transmission like any other, but this is coupled to a unit that hydraulically controls its working. This unit sits right on top of the transmission and eradicates the presence of a manual clutch. So, what the driver needs to do is use the gearshift like in a traditional automatic, and simply put it in D( drive), N( neutral) or R( reverse) . There is no cog for park – like there isn’t in a manual box – and you have to yank the good-old handbrake for that.
