Over the years, Hyundai has introduced a large number of functions in various segments of India. While listing them all will take some time, I’ll tell you the ones that I clearly remember. Hyundai introduced automatic headlights, wireless charging, rear parking camera, automatic windshield wipers, ventilated seats, and the list goes on. Hyundai has introduced another completely new feature and this time, it is the industry’s first iMT or intelligent manual transmission. The new iMT is currently only available with the Hyundai Venue 1.0-liter turbo petrol engine and we’ve spent a few hours with the car to find out how it differs from all the other types of transmissions available on the market and answer a few questions. you can have about the new type of transmission in the Indian market.
Hyundai Venue iMT: What is it?
Imagine any normal car with a manual transmission but no clutch pedal. Weird right? Well that’s the Hyundai Venue iMT. The car offers a regular H pattern 6-speed manual transmission shifter that sticks out of the center console while there are only two pedals on the floor. Yes, you don’t get any clutch with the iMT and I know that makes you wonder a lot of questions. We will try to answer some of them for you and if you have any further questions please leave them in the comment box and we will get back to you.
How is the iMT driven?
Also Read: Hyundai Venue IMT Compact SUV Video Review
If you’ve driven an automatic car before, this will be a fairly familiar step to you. To start the Venue iMT, you must put the gearshift lever in the neutral position, press the brake pedal, and press the engine start button. The gasoline engine comes to life without sound or vibration. Now, to move the car forward, you have put the gear lever in the first position and, like automatic cars, you have to release the brake slowly and the vehicle begins to move slowly. No jerking, no stalling, you get a smooth forward launch. To shift into the highest gear, simply take your foot off the gas and shift up. When you have to downshift, simply slow down or do so while braking.
Driving in traffic:
The biggest concern for most car buyers is drivability in traffic. We drove the car during the notorious rush hours in Delhi-NCR and the vehicle sailed through the sea of cars. There are no jerks at slower speeds and driving in stop-and-go traffic is pretty simple and easy because the Venue iMT crawls just like automatic transmission cars. Most of the time, you don’t even need to hit the gas, the Venue iMT creeps up as soon as you release the brake.
Aggressively driving:
If you’re someone who drives aggressively and doesn’t care much about fuel efficiency, is the Venue iMT the right choice for you? If you can. The Venue iMT even touches the red line and you can also change gears right there. You can also drive aggressively without making red lines all the time. We drove for quite some time aggressively and gear changes are smooth even at 4-5k rpm.
Mileage?
We can’t tell you the exact fuel efficiency of the Venue iMT because the car was idle for a long time during our shoot. However, since the new transmission is not much different than the manual gearbox that Hyundai offers. Therefore, if you drive the iMT aggressively, you will get less efficiency while driving it calmly will give you greater efficiency. The Venue iMT is sure to offer more fuel efficiency than any conventional automatic transmission like DCT, CVT, torque converter, and more.
How does the iMT feel when driving?
Since it is new technology and not available with any other car on the market today, it will definitely take some getting used to with clutchless manual shifting. Personally I kept reaching for the clutch every now and then or forgot to shift into higher or lower gears. But spend a couple of hours driving and that’s it. Since it’s not much different from the manual transmission, it won’t feel like you’re in an alien car.
Also, most people get tired in intermittent traffic from using the clutch pedal. If you don’t have to use the clutch pedal and just change gears, the level of fatigue drops substantially, especially compared to a manual car.
You can’t stop the Venue iMT. As soon as the car detects that it is in the highest gear and needs to downshift, it will receive a warning message in the instrument cluster to downshift. Even while rolling the car from neutral, you must be in first or second gear or you will see a downshift warning on the instrument cluster.
For whom?
Until now, we could classify transmissions into two segments broadly: automatic and manual. People who wanted comfort chose the automatic transmission while people who wanted an attractive drive or simply greater fuel efficiency chose the manual. The iMT changes all that because it beautifully combines the best of both worlds and offers something unique. The iMT transmission offers comfortable clutchless shifting while offering fuel efficiency, maintenance and affordability similar to that of a manual transmission. So this would be perfect for people who drive on congested city roads on a daily basis and don’t want to pay for an automatic or lose the fuel efficiency advantage of manual cars.
Cost advantage
Hyundai has positioned the iMT-equipped variant quite intelligently. There is no single setting where you will find the DCT and IMT together. The basic Venue iMT is available with the SX variant which is priced at Rs 9.99 lakhs, which makes it only Rs 20,000 more expensive than the manual variant. Comparing it to the less expensive Venue DCT automatic variant, the iMT turns out to be roughly Rs 1 lakh cheaper, which is a lot of money. All prices are for variants based on the 1.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine.
It looks different?
The Hyundai Venue IMT variants look exactly similar to the other variants apart from the new name. There is nothing different in terms of features or appearance. We do, however, drive the Sport variant of the Venue, which was recently released. It offers some sporty-looking elements such as red accents on the grille, red painted front brake caliper, red accents on the wheel arches and roof rails. It’s sure to turn heads on the roads as we found out while driving.
Should you buy it?
If you can spot any downsides to Venue iMT please let us know in the comment section because we couldn’t find any. The iMT is a new technology and the only downside I can think of is the clutch life. Since it will be operated automatically by the car and there will be no modulation possible. This could affect clutch life by, say, 10%, but it wouldn’t be a big deal for the amount of comfort the new transmission offers. Yes, it is a new technology in cars, but it is based on a tried and tested manual transmission and there should not be any reliability issues.
The IMT is much smoother than the AMT, the price difference with the manual transmission is not much, and the car performs extremely well in start-stop traffic because you control the gears. This can definitely be an option for many who don’t want hitches from an AMT or low fuel efficiency at the high cost of a full automatic.
Also read: Kia Sonet, a compact mid-spec SUV variant spied
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