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South African new-car buyers in the market for self-shifting models have more choice than ever before. While manual vehicles are still very much available for those who prefer to depress their clutches and row their own gears, the range of automatic options has recently broadened considerably.
Several budget vehicles, for instance, are offered with automated manual transmissions (AMT), though these tend not to be the most refined of cog-swappers in the real world. There's also the tried-and-tested torque-converter auto and the sometimes-maligned continuously variable transmission (CVT).
But what about the dual-clutch transmission (DCT)? Well, while this flavour of gearbox – in which one clutch runs even-numbered gears and the other takes care of odd-numbered gears, leading to the potential for faster shift times – is no longer reserved for high-performance cars.
