Unusual view in driving school parks, cars with automatic transmission can be used as instruction vehicles, and their use is not limited to people with physical disabilities.
Well then… Being automatic, these do not force the aspiring driver to change gears or to make the much feared “clutch point”. So, right now, you must be asking yourself: why are they not adopted more often by driving schools?
After all, there are loads of SUVs with automatic transmissions today and the price difference is no longer all that significant, and their reliability is more than proven — there must be another reason driving schools are moving away from automatic cars. .
a legal issue
All that said, what is left is, essentially, a legal aspect that justifies this departure. To explain to you what may be one of the main reasons why we no longer see cars with automatic transmissions being used as driving instruction vehicles or even being used in the driving test itself, we have to “immerse” in the law.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Thus, in Article 61 of Decree-Law No. 37/2014 of 14-03-2014 we learn about the "Characteristics of the examination vehicles", and in No. 3 of this article we can read: "The practical test can be provided in a manual transmission or automatic transmission vehicle", thus confirming that cold sweats caused by the clutch point can be avoided.
So far so good, but the problem arises when we get to the point No. 6 from that same article:
"If the proof is taken in an automatic teller vehicle, such mention must appear as a restriction on the driving license, with the holder being prevented from driving manual cashier vehicles".
As is clearly stated in this Decree-Law, whoever draws the license in a car with an automatic transmission is prohibited from driving a model with a manual transmission. , which is more than likely the reason why this type of transmission is no longer found in instructional vehicles.
The only exception appears in paragraph 7 of this article 61, which reads: "The restriction imposed in the previous paragraph is not applicable to categories C, CE, D or DE, obtained by examination carried out in an automatic teller machine, when the candidate holds a driving license of at least one of the categories B, BE, C1, C1E, C, CE, D1 or D1E, obtained by a driving test carried out in a manual vehicle, in which the subjects have been evaluated described in point 3.12 of Section III or in point 3.1.14 of Section V of Part II of Annex VII”.
Having said that, would you like to have taken your driving license in a car with an automatic transmission? Do you agree with this limitation? Leave us your opinion in the comments.