While the other players in the segment are riding on the advantage of having Automatic variants of their products, GM doesn’t want to lag behind. Soon GM will come up with an automatic variant of Captiva. This new Captiva Automatic will complement the existing manual 2-Wheel Drive variant. Yes, the captiva automatic will come with a standard four wheel drive. With the launch of new Captiva automatic, GM will be ready to up its ante against the mighty 2.4L,4WD Honda CR-V. The existing 2WD manual captiva variant will continue to fight against 2.0L CR-V and upcoming Mitsubishi Outlander. Expect the pricing of the new Captiva Automatic (AT) to be slightly upwards of Rs20lakh.
Update: Chevrolet Captiva Automatic (A/T) will hit the market in January 2009. On the road, Mumbai Captiva costs Rs25lakh (Rs2.5Lakhs premium over the manual version). You might feel the price is on the higher side, but Chevrolet Captiva Automatic package includes a four wheel drive (4WD).