When Did Automatic Transmission Cars Become Popular in China?
1 Answers
Automatic transmission cars became popular in China after the 1950s. What is an automatic transmission? It means driving without the need for constant gear shifting; whereas manual transmission vehicles require continuous gear shifting and clutch operation to change speed during driving. In fact, the FAW CA72, an old Hongqi model manufactured in the late 1950s, was an automatic transmission car, as was the later CA770 Hongqi. However, these two models were not the earliest automatic transmission cars in China. After the 1940s, many Cadillac cars with Hydra-Matic automatic transmissions were imported into China, but even these were not the earliest automatic transmission cars in the country. It can be said that the first automatic transmission vehicle in China was not a four-wheeled car. "China's first automatic transmission car" includes both domestically produced and imported vehicles. Initially, people thought Jetta was the first brand of automatic transmission cars in China, but the title of "China's first" actually does not belong to it at all. "In several major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, many post-90s generation first learned about automatic transmission cars through imported models such as the Toyota Camry, Lexus, and Cadillac Fleetwood.
