Toyota MultiMode (MMT)

Toyota's automated manual — in the Corolla, Yaris and Aygo.

It is a manual gearbox with an electric actuator on it, and it is very often bought by people who wanted an automatic. There is no torque converter, so it does not creep; the clutch is a real clutch and is a wear item; and the long pause on the change is the design rather than a fault — it is the actuator lifting the clutch, changing gear and letting it back in, which is what a driver does and takes about as long.

Lifting off the throttle as it changes makes it dramatically smoother, exactly as it would in a manual. A great many complaints about these are solved by driving them as what they are.

The failure that strands one is the clutch actuator, not the clutch — a refused gear, a warning light, a car that will not move, often intermittently at first. Replacing the clutch does not fix it.

A clutch change requires a re-learn of the bite point with a diagnostic tool, without which the car judders from rest and hesitates on every change.

It is not the Super CVT-i or the K120, both of which are true automatics with no clutch to wear — and all three appear in the same models in overlapping years.