Inside of the automotive marketUntil a few years ago, the automatic gearbox (AT) was an exception in Argentina, and only a few autos high-end or the most equipped versions of the massive models offered it as an option before the manual gearbox (MT).
Over time, this transmission became more frequent and From the cheapest cars, the alternative is offered, while others only offer the AT box, and do not even have a manual.
According to the Association of Dealers of the Argentine Republic (ACARA), this trend can be seen in numbers: almost half of the model supply in Argentina today has only the automatic transmission as an option and if the models that offer both alternatives are added, it represents more than 70% of the market. This growth represents 35% in the last 8 years, when the automatic box went from 7 to 35 percent.
Although Argentina is one of the countries where the automatic transmission took longer to position as a standard option, the increase in the offer helped the change with the middle segments, where it began to position itself as the default option in the top of the range versions and in the higher segments, directly as the only option available.
Automatic transmission in more car models
During the years that followed, the model offer grew in quantity, but also in equipment options. That was true at least until 2019, however, even with the change in trend that has been evident since then, the automatic transmission kept gaining ground in patents.
In 2019 already represented 25% of the total and so far 2022, they are around 35% of vehicle deliveries 0km. Although during the last year progress seems to have stalled, the trend looks irreversible and crisis-proof.
In 2015, the Argentine market offered 319 models from 36 different brands. So, almost half of these models had a manual transmission as the only option, while 30% of them had some automatic gearbox proposal, especially in the top-of-the-range versions. Even so, the vehicles that were patented were mostly manual transmission (93%). Barely 26% of the models on offer had an automatic transmission as the only option and these were mainly high-end vehicles with very little sales volume.
Four years later, the vehicle offering had grown to 380 models different and some more brands had been added to the market, now there were 56. The number of models with only manual transmission had been reduced by 10 points and represented 34% of the total models on offer, while the models with some automatic gearbox proposal already They represented just over 66% of the total.
Price gap between manual and automatic gearbox
For many years the price difference between the manual and automatic gearbox was one of the factors that delayed growth of the AT. However, today there is not so much difference due to its existence in entry-level models.
For example, in Volkswagen, one of the models that remained the most economical option, which is the Polocomes out in its cheapest MSI version with a manual gearbox $3,735,800, while with an automatic gearbox it costs 4,037,300 pesos.
The In the groina small SUV, does not have a manual gearbox in the 200 TSI version, for that it added a new call 170 TSI that comes out at 4,288,250 pesos, while the AT of the 200 TSI comes out at 4,292,250 pesos.
Fiat Pulse, the cheapest SUV car with automatic gearbox
At Fiat, the best-selling car on the market, the Chronos Precision 1.8 16V Pack HGT manual costs $3,543,400, and the automatic 3,745,100 pesos.
In the case of Pulsethe new SUV, comes out the Drive 1.3 manual $3,698,100, and the Drive AT 3,958,600 pesos.
And Citroen, el C4 Cactuswhich is one of the best-selling models, has 6 options “capped” at $4,146,000, while the rest is impacted by the internal tax and exceeds $5 million, as happens in many models.
Renault Sandero, a cheap car with automatic gearbox
In Renaultthe Sandero costs $3,565,100 in the case of the Intens and $3,749,200 for the Intens with CVT box.
Post-pandemic car offer
After the pandemic, with changes in the market and obstacles to importing, the car supply was “reconfigured” and the number of models available on the market today has been significantly reduced (264) although many of the brands continue to resist (today there are 51 with active supply).
Still, the trend of automatic transmission advance remained, and even sped up. In the 6 months to 2022, 47% of the models on offer have only an automatic transmission as an option, while another 25% offer it within alternatives where there is also a manual gearbox. Only 28% of the models that can be found in dealerships today have a manual transmission as the only option.