The Hindu Business Line : Sonata Embera diesel automatic

Driving the new Sonata Embera CRDi in automatic mode was enjoyable. The best feature of this car is the automatic transmission, which is designed not to override the manual selection while driving in H-matic mode.

— S. Muralidhar

Freeing your left foot in the city and the highway.

When it comes to transmission, the manual is the automatic choice for most Indian car buyers. In the meanwhile, for most carmakers automatics continue to be seen only on their manuals.

Not very surprising considering that a car with an automatic gearbox is, on an average, more expensive, consumes more fuel, is less engaging to drive and, in the Indian market context, has a lower resale value than its equivalent manual transmission counterpart.

Not an automatic choice

— S. Muralidhar

Freeing your left foot in the city and the highway.

With automatic gearbox vehicles constituting less than five per cent of the car market , it is not surprising that Indian manufacturers such as Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra and multinational manufacturers such as Ford and GM don’t seem to think that having an automatic transmission option in their portfolio is necessary.

Maruti used to have automatic transmission in many of its cars, but the company seems to have lost interest because the demand for this option has not picked up over the years. However, there are still a few manufacturers such as Honda and Hyundai that are offering both manual and automatic transmission options in their lower priced cars, albeit only in specific models.

Ironically, automatic transmission is being offered in many premium and luxury cars currently sold in India. That is the transmission of choice in most markets globally, but with most premium cars being chauffeur-driven in the Indian market, offering an automatic gearbox here for these cars defies conventional logic.

After all, the main purpose of the automatic gearbox is convenience, ideally for the owner-driver. And unless the owner lacks confidence in the chauffeur’s driving skills, paying more for an automatic is considered an avoidable expense.

But not all owners of premium cars employ the services of a driver and those that do won’t always want to get chauffeured around. They too would like to get behind the wheel, especially during weekends. The automatic gearbox’s ease-of-use will be appreciated by them during these occasions.

On the other hand, many of them will also miss the feel that a manual transmission offers, especially if it is a refined and powerful vehicle. So, what is the solution? Offer a triptronic or a manual-shift sports mode or a H-Matic transmission.

Honda did that with its sporty, steering mounted shift levers in the Civic automatic and Hyundai has done just that for the new Sonata Embera diesel automatic.

The Sonata Embera CRDi automatic joins the existing petrol version’s automatic variant. It too features the same four-speed H-matic auto transmission that comes with the petrol version and will be positioned along with the six-speed manual transmission option that is already available in the market for the Sonata Embera diesel.

In terms of design, fit and finish, and interiors, the Sonata Embera diesel automatic is identical to the manual transmission variant, except for the prominent ‘Automatic’ badge at the side of the car.

— S. Muralidhar

Freeing your left foot in the city and the highway.

The new H-matic variant also features the same two-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine with common-rail direct injection technology. Boosting power generated to a peak of 142 PS at 4,000 engine rpm is the same variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) that is also offered with the manual transmission variant.

Transmission choice

However, now the CRDi engine has been teamed with Hyundai’s four-speed H-matic gearbox, which allows the driver to choose between a manual ‘triptronic’ (+/-) mode and a fully automatic transmission mode.

Select the traditional automatic mode slotting and you get the usual PRND (parking, reverse, neutral and drive) positions, with the 4-speed automatic transmission doing the choosing of the gear slot depending on inputs such as the engine rpm, vehicle speed and throttle position. Slip out of the fully automatic slot and to the left of the gearshift console, and the same, relatively underutilised, gear stick becomes a manual transmission style shifter.

The only difference is that instead of the usual five or six gear slots positioned on either side of a neutral centre line, the Sonata Embera H-matic only features an up (+) and a down (-) slots. Toggling the gear stick up or down allows the user to move into a higher or lower gear slot from the first gear, which remains engaged by default.

The best feature in this H-matic transmission is the fact that just like in the Honda Civic, the automatic transmission is designed not to override the manual selection while driving in H-matic mode.

So, if the driver selects manually and moves up into a slot, the transmission retains that gear position even if the engine rpm hits the redline.

We enjoyed driving around the new Sonata Embera CRDi automatic in this mode. The manual gear selection option can be a great way to relish an engaging drive in the new Sonata on the highway. Switching back into the fully automatic mode when getting into the thick, crawling traffic of the city can also be such a relief.

Most automatics suffer from one handicap compared to their manual transmission counterparts, and that is the inevitable split second delay in pick up during occasions when the driver is demanding a quick surge in power, for example, during an overtaking manoeuvre.

You have to anticipate the time delay in throttle response and bring the engine to a boil just before the needed surge in power.

Small time delay

In the Sonata Embera diesel automatic, this small time delay just tends to get a little more magnified due to the presence of a bit of turbolag. The VGT-endowed diesel engine has been well received and its refinement levels and overall performance have delighted most users.

However, despite the variable geometry technology, which enables the turbocharger to support the engine based on its specific operating conditions, a bit of turbolag tends to creep in. Luckily, this is felt only when you really stomp on the throttle and are demanding an almost immediate surge in power.

A relatively more relaxed driving style coaxes the ideal power delivery mix from this new transmission, which basically means that you will not be able to discern the lag while driving in city conditions, and while being in fully automatic mode.

On the highway, or when you expect the need for driving without having to wait for the power surge, just slip into manual shift mode and it feels better and more convenient than driving a conventional manual transmission.

The basic interior trim levels and quality in the automatic continue to be similar to the manual transmission variant of the Sonata Embera diesel. Automatic climate control, anti-lock brakes, dual airbags, wood inserts on the centre console and loads of chrome all around are available in the automatic too. The Sonata Embera CRDi automatic costs about Rs 70,000 more than the manual transmission variant.

Think about it and this idea swells in your mind: Stay in fully automatic mode through the week for keeping that office commute hassle-free and shift into the manual selection mode during that weekend trip out of town.

What is even better is that though it is an automatic and it consumes more fuel than a manual, at least you can rest easy that it is a diesel.

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