A few days ago, we brought you a detailed first drive of the new Tata Punch and as I said
in that video, I really liked it, a lot, but we saved some of the good stuff for later,
like that last morsel of food, or that last gulab jamun, yeah, I'm getting carried away.
Okay, anyways, what we didn't tell you is how the AMT version drove,
so, let's tell you that now.
So let's do a quick recap of the spec sheet before we actually get into how this drives.
And this of course, is the same 1.2-litre engine that you get on the manual, the Punch
is only available with a petrol engine option, there is no diesel on hand.
The manual is a five-speed gearbox, this AMT is also a five-speed unit and essentially,
it's the same gearbox underneath with the electronic wizardry on top which actually
shifts the gears for you instead of you physically doing it with your left hand
and using the left foot on the clutch.
So obviously, this is a lot more easier to drive, that's common sense
considering that it is an AMT gearbox.
But is it better to drive with this car, and does the AMT gearbox suit the Punch a lot
better than the manual does.
Now, as I have already mentioned in the longer, more detailed review, the package in the Punch,
the engine and gearbox package, isn't really an enthusiast driven one.
It's great for sort of, running around the city or it's great if you want to sit on the
expressway in the fast lane at a 100 kilometres per hour, cruising peacefully down the road,
if you expect to push this engine hard, it's not really going to be pleased to do that
and that's why the AMT gearbox actually might make a lot more sense to a lot more people
as compared to the manual because the AMT gearbox by design, isn't really an enthusiast
driven gearbox either, so a non-enthusiastic engine, with a non-enthusiastic gearbox,
in general, makes a great combination to give a more relaxed, a more, should I say,
laid back driving experience that the Punch AMT actually does offer.
Our SUV engines undergo a lot of stress, both in city driving and on tough terrains, particularly
during warm-up in stop/start traffic and of course, while carrying heavy loads.
Ordinary car oils may not be enough for your SUV and that is why we recommend fully synthetic
Castrol Magnatec SUV for superior protection.
What Tata has done to this engine is, slightly recalibrate it and given it a couple of hardware
changes with a new ram-air intake and what that has done is, made the engine slightly
more responsive and it actually drives a little bit better than what it does in the Altroz
and of course in the Tiago and Tigor and that better response, that slightly better response,
actually makes the AMT gearbox suited even better than what it was
with the Nexon or with the other cars in the past.
Now with the AMT, of course, brings along to the table are its advantages and disadvantages.
Now, the advantage of course being that it's much easier to drive as I've already mentioned,
and the fact that it is quite smooth and quite easy going, so if you don't go full ham on
the throttle pedal, if you say hold it at about 30% or so which is what generally people like
to drive at, this is smooth, it goes through the gears nice and calmly, quickly shifts
up to fifth, in fact I'm at about 60 kilometres an hour now in fifth gear holding around 2000rpm,
it's quiet, it's nice, it's peaceful, it's what this car does best.
Mash the throttle though, takes a while to shift down, we're now in third, 5000rpm, just
crossing 80 kilometres an hour.
So what it does, it actually holds the gear a lot longer, all the way up to about 5500rpm,
so, if you do want to sort of drive it harder, than what it is more comfortable doing,
you could do that, the AMT gearbox does adapt to that,
but again, as I mentioned again and again, it's not really comfortable doing it, it doesn't
like to be taken by the scruff of its neck as I would normally say and manhandle.
This is a car that likes to be driven gently, that doesn't like being pushed around, doesn't
like you being bossy with it, but if you do still want to and if you want to make it do
that, you can always shift to manual and it will obey all your commands, master.
Right, so let's wrap this up and answer that question that you are all here to get answered.
Is the AMT gearbox, or AMT version of the Tata Punch a better option,
as compared to the manual?
You know what, I've thought long and hard and almost every single time I'd have the
manual over an AMT, it's because I like driving a little bit more, but you know what, in this,
I think this has a different target audience,
it isn't, as I mentioned many times, targeted towards the enthusiasts, it's targeted towards
the person who just wants a great family car and for that, for that customer and for that
application, in particular, for what the Tata Punch is actually designed to do,
the AMT is a better option.
Now I believe the AMT isn't going to be available straight at the time of launch, so I'd suggest
that you'd wait that little while and I guess get this, as compared to the manual because
it just suits the car a little bit better.
Now, that said, and I'm going to repeat this again, as I've repeated
already in my main review, what this car really needs, is an electric motor to make it
the perfect city car, the perfect city car, that's it, an EV Tata Punch,
come on Tata Motors, we know you can do it.