Why I feel Maruti's 4-speed AT is better for the Jimny than the 6AT

It just makes it better for both scenarios, where it should excel at least in my use case, if I buy the SUV.

BHPian saurabh041086 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

If somebody is yearning for a 6AT over the 4AT that Maruti provided, let me share my experience from the test drive of Jimny 4AT and comparison with my K15C 6AT XL6. In theory, even I was pissed off when Maruti disclosed the choice of 4AT in Jimny. This is no technical review but just a mango person sharing practical experiences. Staying in Noida, gave me the opportunity to try out the car on both well-paved roads as well as narrow trails to the river bed and broken village roads.

Shifts are not felt in either of these. So from that sense, TC is sorted. Though I don't appreciate Maruti's pricing of the car I am happy with them not getting greedy with AT. At 120k it is a very fair price for the shift quality alone when many pseudo SUVs are plonking in an AMT that too for a 70-90k premium. That is atrocious for the price and power those cars come with.

6AT is hunting for gears more frequently compared to 4AT. Since the majority of the time even Jimny will be spending as a daily car for many I assume, 6AT is inferior to 4AT in moving from traffic signals, speed breakers, and slow-moving traffic like NH8 (peak hours Gurgaon). Jimny holds the gear longer than 6AT. I feel this is going to be fun and practical in both city and offroad conditions.

With respect to the expectation of 4AT feeling strained 100 or beyond. Let me make it clear even 6AT is not an engine transmission combo that is happy beyond 120. One can call it unpleasant, but I personally being a long-distance tourer, prefer the 90-110 km/h most. That gives me a drivability of 700+ kms/day without any fatigue. If somebody needs to cruise at speeds higher than that look for another engine as either of the GB-K15 combination is comfortable beyond that. No, saying one cannot keep it beyond 120kmph.

6AT does offer pedal shifters in all Maruti iterations. It does give one the capability to downshift faster via fingers on the go while on the highway for an overtake. This 6AT was widely criticized by almost all reviewers, but I don't think they have used it in manual mode. Doing this as well increases the engine growl, which someone might complain about in 4AT as well. For the sake of overtaking OD will come in handy, obviously not at the flick of the fingers but should be fine.

Coming to rpms, 6AT does achieve 100kmph @2.1k compared to 2.9k in 4AT. On paper, this looks alarming or frustrating. How it feels inside the car. I didn't feel any significantly high engine noise inside Jimmy's cabin at that speed that I will be irritated with.

Engine braking is one area I felt a significant difference. Jimny's was much better. Might be more of a K15B characteristic, but I think this would be definitely needed in downhill moves.

Overall engine note felt much better in K15B, which I would not mind even if it has a slightly higher growl inside the cabin.

So overall in contrast to my initial display on the GB choice by Maruti, obviously from the options within their stable, I would prefer the 4AT on Jimny over the 6AT. It just makes it better for both scenarios where it should excel at least in my use case if I buy the car. Drive to office 5 days. Enjoy some moments off the road on weekends. For somebody planning long-distance cruising (90-110kmph) as well, 4AT will be my pick even if it delivers nearly 10% lesser mileage.

Here's what BHPian swami69 had to say on the matter:

Ditto my use case, Thanks for this post after comparing both ATs. Just because it is a 4AT, we do not want to call it pre-historic, a bad choice by Maruti etc., As long as it does the job well, it is great. I am sure this post always has a lot of fear. Thank you.

• Smooth-shifting proper TC AT
• Good Engine braking
• Holding Revs and not hunting
• Fun to drive in the city
• Cruising at 100 km/h with minimal noise inside,
• What more?

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