For cars with automatic transmission, what is better: AMT or CVT? Are there any pros/cons that I should know before making a decision? What do people here prefer?

You should test drive the car. I did not like the AMT transmission and I opted to go in for a manual gearbox instead of the AMT option in the Nexon. I have not driven a CVT transmission so can't comment. DCT is another tech which is seeing more adoption lately in mid segmentish cars and is quite good. I test drove the Kushaq which had DCT and it was quite good. At the end of the day, test drive the car and see if your experience is decent.

AMT < CVT < DSG/DCT. There's also a direct correlation to price.. AMT cars are cheaper than CVT cars, which in turn are cheaper than DSG/DCT cars.

• AMT was created to have a cheaper automatic option for cars. • Among Cars with AMT, Hyundai has the best versions of it (i10 nios). Maruti and Tata have recently upped their game though. • CVT is better than AMT and is offered in slightly premium cars than AMT (or) is considered a better option at same price. • There is classic TC which is the most old school and reliable of all. • DSG/DCT is newest and optimized for performance; but is the least fuel efficient of all. • AMT can be jerky. CVT can have a slight lag but is very smooth. A lot depends on your budget as typically transmission options within a segment are usually same. You would likely have to upgrade your budget to move to CVT

As Vishnu mentioned, most budget friendly compact suv cars offer AMT. In AMT you do feel lag and can notice the gears changing but it is a trade off I can live with to not deal with changing gears in traffic. You have to test drive it to feel it. I have Nexon AMT but its a 2018 model, not sure about the refinement of latest models. Also, I would recommend to test drive in all modes if car offers any e.g (city/sports/etc). Car response and gear shifting pattern changes in different modes.

Good explainer on the same topic

be careful when you test drive though.. make sure you test the exact variant - Kia has DCT and CVT automatics.. the top ends are the ones available for test drive usually - those are DCTs.. CVTs have a noticeable lag, but fine for city driving.. they are annoying for highway, or places where you need to overtake something in a hurry.

^ My personal opinion based on driving AMT for 4 years. I have not faced any problem on highways driving AMT. I usually drive in sports mode which does not up shit the gear as quickly as in city mode hence providing enough torque to overtake by holding on to the lower gears. Also, in case of tight situation when you hard press/fully press accelerator, it immediately down shifts to lower gear (same as what you would do in manual transmission). I think this is true even for CVT although I have not driven CVT.

I was initially an Automatic Hater (😬) after driving some entry level automatics (Some Maruti AMTs and an old i20). All the cars in my family had been manuals too. But it was when my friend bought a Polo GT that I experienced the driving pleasure offered by DCTs. My current car is a DCT. Shifts are quick and butter smooth, unless we floor the throttle, we won't be able to feel gear shifts even when we're trying to. Volkswagen (and Skoda) DCTs are notorious for failure after a few years though. Take some long test drives, in traffic, highways, turns, hills, mild/sporty driving, overtakes, etc and you'll clearly see the difference between all of them. Unless you're a pure driving enthusiast, transmission type might not be the best factor when choosing your next car. And there's always electric with no transmission 😂. Also check out reviews at teamBHP.

automatics are like power steering… it’s not for purists, def will take from the driving pleasure. but it’s pragmatic af. especially in a city traffic.