Automatic gearbox in town: CVT or dual-clutch?

In town, the most pleasant automatic gearbox is a hybrid's: the continuously variable transmission of a Toyota Yaris or the multi-mode gearbox of a Renault Clio pull away on electric power, without a jolt. The dual-clutch unit in a Polo or an i20 is sharper, but it dislikes crawling in queues. As for the single-clutch automated manual, you now meet it almost only on the used market.

Four families of gearbox, one lever marked D

On the spec sheet, everything is called "automatic". Under the floor, nothing is alike.

In 2015, 23.5% of new cars registered in Belgium had an automatic gearbox. By 2021 it was 56.5%, according to FEBIAC, the Belgian motor industry federation. City cars have followed, with very different technology from one brand to the next.

A fifth exists, the torque-converter automatic (EAT8 at Peugeot). Smooth and durable, it has almost vanished from new small cars: you find it used, on a 208 PureTech 130 for instance.

CVT and e-CVT: the Yaris scores 0.9 with ADAC

A continuously variable transmission never changes gear. In its classic form, a belt links two pulleys whose diameter keeps changing; that was the gearbox of the automatic Dacia Sandero TCe 90 until its facelift. The e-CVT of Toyota hybrids has almost the same name and nothing in common: a gear set blends the petrol engine and two electric motors, with neither belt nor clutch. The detail of that mechanism belongs on a site about hybrids; here, only the result matters.

It is very good. In its August 2025 report on the Yaris Hybrid 130, the German motoring club ADAC gives the transmission 0.9, on a scale where 0.6 is the best possible mark and 5.5 the worst. The testers describe a prompt, jolt-free start and a car that is easy to meter on the brake at walking pace. Consumption measured on the urban cycle: 3.6 l/100 km.

The flaw is well known. Floor the accelerator and the revs jump and stay there, and the three-cylinder makes itself heard. In town, you rarely get that far.

Dual-clutch: why do traffic jams wear it out?

Because a slipping clutch heats up, and a dual-clutch gearbox has nothing else to move the car at walking pace. In a manual, your left foot does the metering; here the electronics do, but the friction is the same. The seven-speed DSG in the Polo 1.0 TSI works with dry clutches, with no oil bath to carry the heat away, and that is the most exposed set-up in stop-start traffic.

None of this condemns the technology. Once rolling, it is the liveliest of the four, and the first drive of the automatic Sandero Eco-G 120 published by the Belgian magazine Le Moniteur Automobile on 11 February 2026 describes a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox that is smooth and jolt-free in town and shifts up early. Note in passing that the facelifted Sandero no longer has a CVT: its automatic is reserved for the 120 hp petrol-LPG engine.

Three habits spare these gearboxes in town:

• in a queue, let the gap open and then move forward decisively, instead of crawling continuously;
• on a slope, hold the car on the brake and never on the accelerator;
• when parallel parking on a hill, manoeuvre in short, clear inputs rather than holding a trickle of throttle.

The Peugeot 208 Hybrid is the exception in the family. Its e-DCS6 gearbox houses a small electric motor that handles pulling away and manoeuvring, which spares the clutches exactly where they suffer.

Is the Clio E-Tech gearbox a real automatic?

Yes, in the sense that there is no clutch pedal and you drive in D. Its design is nonetheless unique on the market. ADAC describes it in its July 2026 report on the Clio E-Tech 160: four gears for the petrol engine, two for the electric motor, dog clutches instead of synchromesh, neither clutch nor torque converter. The car always pulls away on electric power, and the testers note that it then responds like an electric car, with a creep function precise enough to manoeuvre easily. Up to medium load, shifts are almost jolt-free. It is when hurried that the whole comes apart, with jumps in revs and pauses between gears, and reverse takes a moment to engage. Transmission mark: 2.9, two points worse than the Yaris.

For someone driving at 30 km/h between two sets of lights, those reservations weigh little.

Single-clutch automated manual: a used buy to test twice

It is a manual gearbox that a robot operates for you. At each shift, drive is cut for half a second and the passengers nod forward. You find it on cheap used cars: Fiat 500 Dualogic, Citroën C3 and Peugeot 208 ETG, early Toyota Aygo x-shift. Try one on a hill and in a parallel park before signing.

How much does an automatic cost on a city car in Belgium?

Between €1,750 and €2,100 when the same trim exists with both gearboxes. I checked the prices on 9 October 2026, on the manufacturers' Belgian sites and on Le Moniteur Automobile's listings. All include VAT (TVAC on Belgian price lists).

Three reading notes. The price of the Yaris on Toyota's Belgian site is an offer valid until 31 October 2026, against a list price of €27,600. The prices of the Clio at Renault Belgium are "from" prices, and going automatic there means changing engine. For the Polo and the 208, I could not read both prices on the same trim on the same day, and I prefer an empty cell to a reconstructed figure.

Do the sum over time. A city car kept for eight years spreads €2,100 at €262 a year, or €22 a month; for the i20, €18 a month. There is nothing to recover in fuel on these two models: it is the price of comfort in queues, and everyone knows what their knees are worth on a Friday evening on the Brussels inner ring.

What should you check on a city test drive?

Ten minutes is enough, provided you leave the boulevard outside the dealership.

• Crawl for fifty metres without touching the accelerator: the car should move on its own, without judder.
• Stop on a slope and pull away: no marked roll-back, no jolt.
• Go from D to R three times in a row, as in a parallel park, and count the response time.
• Accelerate firmly from 30 to 50 km/h: on a CVT, listen to the revs; on an automated manual, feel the pause.
• On a used car, ask for the invoices and look for a software update or a clutch replacement.

Code 78: a licence passed in an automatic stays automatic

Here is the trap for a first purchase. In Belgium, a practical test passed in a vehicle with no clutch pedal gives a licence marked with code 78, valid for automatic vehicles only. The circular from SPF Mobilité, the federal transport ministry, is clear: to have it lifted, you must retake a practical test in a manual, and training already completed does not count. All four families in this comparison fall under that definition, the automated manual included. The code is European and applies in the same way in Wallonia, Brussels and Flanders, even though each region runs its own test centres.

So before choosing an automatic city car for a young driver, look at their licence first. Our guide to the best city car for a young driver starts from there, the comparison of city car fuel consumption in town puts a figure on the hybrids' advantage, and the ranking of the best city cars and the comparison tool line up the models mentioned here.