The Hindu Business Line : Shifting gears, F1 style

Honda has also launched the Civic with an automatic transmission variant, in addition to the five-speed manual gearbox. Here, too, Honda has shrewdly built in a considerable level of novelty into this more expensive automatic variant to make it the most attractive option in its class.

The Civic 1.8S AT (automatic) features an advanced five-speed auto gearbox that offers the regular parking, neutral, reverse and drive shift slots. But the most interesting part of the package is the inclusion of a sports drive mode, which allows the driver to manually shift up or down the five gear slots with the help of a pair of paddles located right behind the steering wheel. Located conveniently behind the wheel, the paddle shifters (right to go up the slots and left to come down) are easily accessible to the driver (see photo).

Automatic gearboxes with sports mode and paddle shift are currently only available in high-end sports performance cars such as the Ferrari and Porsche. Of course, the inspiration for this feature originally came from Formula One cars.

The paddle shift mechanism not only adds novelty to the Civic AT, but is also tuned to offer an extremely engaging drive for the user. Unlike other triptronic type auto gearboxes that have an override mechanism to switch back into full auto mode, the auto gearbox in the Civic AT, while in sports mode, will continue to keep the gear slot chosen by the driver even if the redline is crossed and the rev-limiter kicks in. The exact gear slot chosen and currently engaged is displayed in the form of a digital read out as part of the instrument cluster.

In sports mode, the Civic AT behaves exactly like a manual and can really be fun to drive. Both the single trim variants of the manual and automatic come fully loaded with safety features such dual airbags, anti-lock brakes, electronic brake force distribution, brake assist, keyless entry, immobiliser and security alarm.

Most buyers looking for an automatic are ready for a compromise in the fuel efficiency department and with this kind of uniqueness and practicality built in, the Civic AT will be the car to buy in the sub-Rs 20 lakh segment.

S. Muralidhar