AMT vs CVT vs DCT vs Torque Converter: Price Gap in India

What does each gearbox actually cost?

This is every case in our catalogue where a manufacturer sells the same trim, on the same engine, with a manual and with something else — 328 pairs across 68 cars. The difference between those two prices is what the gearbox costs, with nothing else moving.

Ex-showroom, Delhi. “Typical” is the median of the cases we hold, not an average of advertised prices. The iMT figure is a single pair, so it is one car's price rather than a typical one.

What the automatic costs on each car

The cheapest way into each kind of automatic on every car we track, against the same trim and engine with a manual. Open a gearbox to see its cars, cheapest first; each car links to its own powertrain page, which has every trim.

How each one works, and which to pay for

The table above is the whole argument, and it splits cleanly in two. An AMT is the price of a decent set of alloy wheels. Everything else — torque converter, CVT, dual-clutch — costs several times that. The gap between the two groups is larger than the gaps inside either.

Not every dual-clutch is in the table above. 7 cars sell their dual-clutch only with an engine that has no manual version: Kia Seltos, Hyundai Creta, Volkswagen Virtus, Kia Sonet, Skoda Slavia, Skoda Kushaq and Volkswagen Taigun. On the Skoda and Volkswagen cars here the dual-clutch is called a DSG and comes only with the 1.5 TSI engine. With no manual on the same engine, the price of the gearbox on its own cannot be read off. What these cars charge is for a different engine and the gearbox together, and each car's “which powertrain” page shows that, trim by trim.

The automatic often comes with extra equipment

On 202 of 327 pairs the automatic also carries equipment its manual twin does not, worth a typical ₹12,500 at our valuations. Makers fit some things to the automatic only, so on those cars part of the premium buys equipment rather than the gearbox alone. What comes with it most often:

• Steering Mounted Paddle Shifters171 pairs on 38 cars
• Electronic Parking Brake with Auto Hold56 pairs on 17 cars
• Level 2 ADAS Suite33 pairs on 12 cars
• Multi Drive & Traction Modes23 pairs on 6 cars
• All 4 Disc Brakes16 pairs on 7 cars
• Multiple Drive Modes15 pairs on 5 cars
• Cruise Control14 pairs on 6 cars
• 8-Way Powered Driver Seat6 pairs on 1 car

The premiums in the tables above are the full price gap and include this equipment. Each car's powertrain page lists what its automatic adds, trim by trim. On 26 pairs it works the other way and the automatic gives up something the manual has.

What the automatic costs on the road

The gap you pay is bigger than the showroom gap. Road tax and insurance are charged as a share of the price, and above ₹10 lakh a 1% TCS is collected too, so a dearer automatic pays more of each. How much more depends on the state.

Typical (median) gaps across the same pairs as above, on our on-road calculator, which every state page uses. For a torque converter, the typical gap runs from ₹1,49,223 in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to ₹1,82,982 in Kerala.

Why we do not give a manual-to-automatic upgrade a value verdict

Everywhere else on this site we price the equipment difference between two versions of a car and tell you what share of the price rise it explains. We refuse to do that across a gearbox change, and this article is why. A gearbox is not equipment: running it through the same model would show ₹1,35,000 of price against almost no features and return “pricey” for every automatic in India, which would say nothing except that our model was pointed at the wrong question.

So the honest answer is the one above — here is what it costs, decide whether your traffic is worth it — and the verdicts stay for comparisons where equipment really is the difference. The equipment some automatics add is counted in its own section above.

The cheapest and the dearest automatic in our data

The least you can pay to lose the clutch pedal is ₹35,000, on the Maruti Swift VXi. The most is ₹4,20,000, on the Jeep Meridian Longitude — ₹3,85,000 between the two ends of the same decision.

An iMT is cheaper still — ₹29,000 on the Kia Carens Clavis HTX+, the only one we hold — but it is a clutchless manual, not an automatic: you still change every gear yourself.

Every car's own model page carries a “which powertrain” tab with its own version of this comparison, trim by trim.