Automated manual (AMT)

The architecture, for the cars whose specification says only automated manual, robotised or clutchless and names no unit.

It is an ordinary manual gearbox with a robot bolted to it, and every complaint people make about one follows from that:

• There is no torque converter, so it does not creep smoothly the way an automatic does and can roll back on a hill.
• There is a real single clutch, which wears like a manual's and is a consumable rather than a fault. On many of these the diagnostic tool reports clutch wear as a percentage — which is the single most useful thing to ask for when buying one.
• The long pause on the change is the design. The actuator lifts the clutch, changes gear and lets it back in; that is what a driver does and it 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 answered by driving them as what they are, and the reputation of Fiat's Dualogic, Opel's Easytronic, Toyota's MultiMode and PSA's ETG suffered because they were sold to people who wanted an automatic.

⚑ The failure that strands one is the ACTUATOR, not the clutch. The electro-hydraulic or electric unit that works the clutch and selector loses pressure or its position sensor drifts, and the car refuses to select a gear and shows a warning — often after standing overnight, and intermittently before it becomes permanent. It is very commonly replaced as a clutch, and the symptom returns within days.

A genuine clutch replacement is not finished when the clutch is in. The system must be re-taught its bite point with a diagnostic tool; without that the car judders from rest and hesitates on every change — which is the complaint the new clutch was meant to cure.

An automated manual is not a dual-clutch. A DCT has two clutches and two shafts and does not pause; this has one of each and does.