What is the difference between semi-auto gearboxes and traditional automatics ?
Good question. Basically the former has an electrically controlled gearchange whereas the latter contains a torque converter characterised by the lurch you experience as you engage first gear. From my experiences with roadtesters and the public, there is confusion between both.
Semi-autos are designed to be driven with a light right foot. On one launch in 2015, road testers including myself, were scathing about one Japanese manufacturer’s CVT gearbox, there you go another acronym to learn : Continuously Variable Transmission. The aforementioned CVT simply was thrashy on inclines and changed up a gear at the wrong time even with a heavy right foot around Lisbon but naively, it was us that were at fault – we were inexperienced.
I recently purchased a 2010 Fiat Punto CVT that was soon bought online by one woman without physically viewing the car. Months later, she texted me stating that the gearchange was slow so I replied that that was the nature of the gearbox although you could change manually like a racing stick with +to change up and – to down change. Mechanically, the car was fine although I was perturbed by her message so I did a vehicle check and noticed that the car had been re-MOT’d prematurely – passing first time with no advisories. Sniffing that a trader had it, I clicked on autotrader and found it looking fresher than when I had it. It was advertised at almost ÂŁ1000 more than I sold it for although displayed invoices for a service and timing belt replacement. That proved that it wasn’t me at fault or the car but the buyer who misunderstood the gearbox. I felt reassured that the car was fault-free but it does question the mentality of those who buy without driving and secondly is the need sometimes to adjust driving style to suit – a learning curve.
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I’ve owned older semi-auto Toyota Aygos that incredibly, are taxed at only ÂŁ20 yearly which for an ‘automatic’ is rare. Furthermore, the gearstick has to be in neutral or ‘N’ for it to start, like a traditional automatic. There have been no problems although recently, a 2007 Mitsubishi Colt has caused me some bother as it intermittantly displayed an engine management light that defined as transmission control module or P0702 if you are a code breaker geek. Despite being driven sixty fault-free motorway miles, it decided to throw up a code around the city and worse was that later on, it wouldn’t engage drive and couldn’t be pushed either. It was fine after being left a few days later but those in the trade advised me to get rid despite it having a full service history – main dealer no less from 2013.
My advice: if you want a cheap automatic, older semi-autos tend to be cheaper tax-wise than full automatic transmissions. Get one with low mileage and adapt your driving style to suit. I swear by them now which I wouldn’t have said years ago.
Words are copyright of Sotiris Vassiliou
April 2019
